The Freshwater Crisis

Although access to water is a human right recognized by the United Nations, over 1 billion people presently lack safe water for consumption and sanitation. The freshwater that sustains all life constitutes less than 3% of the earth’s water, and only one third of this is accessible, making our current patterns of water use deeply unsustainable.

Read ICCR's Statement of Principles and Recommended Practices for Water Stewardship:

With agriculture accounting for close to 70% of the world’s water use, and industry 22%, corporations can play a key role in helping alleviate the freshwater crisis. In many water-scarce parts of the world, water allocated to multinational corporations reduces the amount available for individual and domestic uses such as subsistence farming.

For nearly a decade, ICCR Members have engaged key business sectors such as energy, food and beverages on water issues. What distinguishes ICCR’s work from that of many other NGOs working for water justice is its
emphasis on the importance of measuring social risk. Says Narine, “ICCR is developing criteria that will not only help protect against the growing threat of water scarcity, but will ensure the right of all people to sufficient, safe,
acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water, which is the definition of the Human Right to Water.”

See what ICCR did for World Water Day 2012:

Trusted Consultants on Water
Sustainability Initiatives Water scarcity and the externalities of manufacturing and processing pose a range of
water-related risks to businesses, from higher costs due to scarce supplies, to major business disruptions from loss of license to operate and reputational damage.

Said Christina Herman of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, “We approach the process of corporate dialogue with a deep commitment to the common good. Companies concerned both to do the right thing, and
aware of the value of their brand listen closely to our feedback on their plans and operations. This has been particularly true in the area of water, which is vital to life itself. Not only is poor water management a reputational risk,
but it threatens the very communities – and hence the markets – on which the companies depend.”

Anna Bradley, Consultant for Socially Responsible Investing for the Jesuit Conference, further clarifies ICCR’s aims: “We are seeking to make meaningful, systematic and comparable reporting on water a standard corporate practice globally.”

As investors and stakeholders in the long-term success of these companies, ICCR members help companies measure their water footprints and implement programs that will help them achieve their water sustainability
goals. Says Bradley, “We are asking companies to measure impact beyond their own industrial‘fence-lines’, and assess the water risks posed by their contract farmers and other major suppliers.”

Leaders in Sustainable Water Use
At the one-year anniversary of the UN’s adoption of the Human Right to Water, several of the companies ICCR members engage have shown tremendous leadership.

The Coca Cola Company has developed a state-of-the-art facility-level water risk assessment and management program for its global operations. Said Herman, “While Coke has not yet gone public with a human right to water
policy, it has some of the best water data and management practices in the world.”

Continues Herman, “The company has invested millions in important watershed conservation and sustainable community water programs in poor areas across the globe in an effort to offset its own water use.”

Meanwhile, as a result of dialogues with the Jesuits, Bunge has used the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s “Water Tool” to identify 17 of its facilities that are near or adjacent to areas of water stress. The
company also formed a new Water Taskforce to educate its operating units on water risks and to seek appropriate solutions.

And according to Patricia Jones, Environmental Justice Program Manager of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee,“PepsiCo has set the high water mark for private sector bulk-water users by adopting the first human right to water policy, and by beginning negotiations with civil society and affected communities to implement a human right to water impact assessment of its operations.”

Our corporate partners’ leadership in setting meaningful goals for increased water efficiency, and in providing more systematic disclosure of water risks gives us real hope that we will be able to successfully navigate the water challenges that lie ahead.