Posts Tagged ‘climate change’

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South Korea makes green its business

December 30th, 2011
Posted by Senior Director, Juliette Terzieff:

South Korea, a long-standing competitor in the electronics and automobile industries with companies like LG, Samsung, and Hyundai, has entered the renewable energy market with the same vigor that catapulted it to competition status in the above industries beginning almost five decades ago.

When President Lee Myung-bak came into office four years ago, “Green Growth” was his top priority for his country. On its way to becoming one of the top carbon-emission producers in the world, South Korea has taken measures, made commitments, and created committees over the last four years to change its “policies—from waste-management to air- quality to renewable energy. And—this being South Korea—exports are a central part of that.”

“Exports are very important for us,” said Joo Hyunghwan, head of Korea’s Presidential Committee on Green Growth. “We are not well-endowed with renewable resources but we need to increase our energy mix. And we want to develop renewable technologies into a strategic export industry.”

According to Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance’s lead wind analyst, Justin Wu, South Korea “is starting its wind industry at a difficult time, with falling prices and shrinking demand.” But, says Wu, the country’s firms are good at “leapfrogging.”

It’s not the first time South Korea has had to jump forward to attain newer technological capabilities. In the 1980s, the country was able to match competition from Western and Japanese automobile manufacturers by investing in European expertise.

When the wind turbines are most common in Europe, because Europe is the established leader in the market, along with China, buying up European expertise or companies makes sense. Nearly every wind turbine in South Korea is European-made.

Since South Korea has a great deal of industrial experience in things like shipbuilding and steel, it has valuable production skills that can be transferred to the manufacture of green products such as solar panels or wind-turbines. The country’s conglomerates, which hold strong, well-disciplined values, are “tightly knit into the rest of the economy,” and Justin Wu says that such conglomerates “have a strong desire to move into this new business area.”

To remain competitive in the green technology market, South Korea has begun opening factories in China, though China is steaming ahead in the market. By 2020, South Korea has its eyes set on gaining 10 percent of the world’s renewable technology market. It has also said that by 2030, 11 percent of its total energy will be from renewable energy. Unison is one of South Korea’s turbine manufacturers, and is getting ready to compete with China by setting up a factory there. “Korea is basically an export-driven country,” Unison’s international head, Ham Bom-sik, says. “When we developed wind turbines, our main focus was overseas.” Unison’s exports to Jamaica and the Seychelles, as well as South America, have started off slow, but South Korea isn’t a country to back down from challenging market development opportunities.

South Korea is also looking into tidal power—a green energy obtained from tidal waves—with plan already underway to create more tidal plants after the success of its first tidal plant, and world’s largest, was completed off its western coast. The proposed projects have drawn some criticisms, especially from fishermen and environmental groups.

Ernst & Young, which updates its Country Attractiveness Indices quarterly, reports that “South Korea aims to generate 5% of energy from renewables by 2011, increasing to 11% by 2030. This is compared with a current figure of 2.4%; therefore achievement of these targets would more than double energy from renewables by the end of next year.”

The reports indicates that South Korea is not only looking into wind turbines as a renewable technology to be used within its borders, but it is also looking into offshore wind power, solar power, and hydro power with its Four Rivers Project.

As South Korea expands into the renewable energy arena, its use of “green technology growth to boost the economy” is a new strategy and one that may, given its success, encourage other countries to follow its lead.

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IT for the Bottom of the Pyramid

November 30th, 2011
Posted by Senior Director, Juliette Terzieff:

In 2002, C. K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart released their book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, a controversial idea on targeting production to impoverished individuals and communities that sparked debates across corporate conference tables in the United States and abroad.

The book’s challenge: produce and distribute products and services that are “culturally sensitive, environmentally sustainable, and economically profitable” to sell to the four billion people at the bottom of the pyramid—those with annual per capita income of less than $1,500. By doing so, some of the world’s wealthiest companies would have to restructure their managerial practices for the new market, and learn to think outside the box in terms of pricing and packaging.

(more…)

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AT&T, major brands drive sustainable packaging

November 22nd, 2011
Posted by Senior Director, Juliette Terzieff

AT&T made the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America for a second consecutive year by reducing the amount of plastic in its accessory packaging, investing in clean energy and encouraging community volunteerism among its employees. The new packaging is made up of 30 percent bioplastic—a plant-based material harvested from sugarcane. AT&T is the latest in a list of prominent brand names to recalibrate products to include bioplastic, such as Coca-Cola’s 2009 introduction of the PlantBottle, and the company remains on the leading edge of using this new technology in a myriad of its products as part of its sustainability efforts.

(more…)

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Samsung launches solar schools in Africa

November 17th, 2011
Posted by Senior Director, Juliette Terzieff:

As technology advances throughout the modern world, it brings change and growth opportunities for developing countries in the field of education that can unite multinational corporations and their stakeholders in a drive to turn possibilities into reality. By broadening Internet access and boosting computer literacy even at the most basic education level, especially in developing countries, public and private sector stakeholders are contributing to increased future job readiness, self-sufficiency and geographically-tailored technological applications that all contribute to progressing development efforts.

Samsung Africa launched their portable, solar-powered classroom in Johannesburg in late October with the goal of deploying these portable classrooms throughout the country to enhance not only childhood education efforts, but also adult learning. The pilot program is aimed “to create an environment that would facilitate learning for whole communities in remote areas that otherwise don’t have access to education tools or internet connectivity,” says Tessa Calleb, Samsung’s East Africa CSR Manager. Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy in Boksburg, South Africa is currently piloting the school and plans to introduce the program to other parts of the African continent, including Kenya.

(more…)

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Companies, stakeholders move on climate change

September 22nd, 2011
Posted by Juliette Terzieff

United Nations backed negotiations to forge an international treaty to fight global warming may be stumbling, but that hasn’t prevented companies around the world from taking steps to address climate change risks on their own and with the help of stakeholders. For the first time in the ten years since Carbon Disclosure Project began its annual Global 500 report, results show a majority of companies including climate change concerns and actions in their business planning.

The CDP report, Accelerating low carbon growth, found 68 percent of the 396 companies analyzed have climate change strategies, up from 48 percent a year ago. The percentage of companies reporting on greenhouse gas emission reductions also jumped from 19 percent to 45 percent over the same period.

Seventy four percent of respondents reported having a carbon reduction target in place, with Consumer Staples as the industry with the highest percentage and Energy with the lowest proportion.

CDP also looked at indications of financial benefits of corporate climate change efforts and found companies that have climate change strategies earned nearly twice the return for their investors than those that do not between 2005 and 2011.

“The improved financial performance of companies with high carbon performance is a clear indicator that it makes good business sense to manage and reduce carbon emissions. This is a win win for business – the short ROIs many emissions reducing activities have, can help increase profitability,” CDP CEP Paul Simpson said. “Companies yet to take action on climate change will have to work hard to remain competitive as we head towards an increasingly resourced constrained, low carbon economy.”

The top ten performers in terms of performance and disclosure according to the report are (in alphabetical order) Bank of America, Bayer, BMW, Cisco, Honda Motor Company, Philips Electronics, SAP, Sony Corporation, Tesco and Westpac Banking Corporation.

Measures taken by corporations surveyed in the report range from monetary incentives to employees to reduce their own environmental impact, energy efficient changes to working spaces and production processes, product design and low carbon energy installations. Changes in practice, such as minimizing business travel through the use of new technological capabilities like telepresence, have exploded across the globe.

The CDP’s S&P 500 annual report on American corporations found similar results, with the percentage of companies reporting climate change strategy as policy jumping from 35 percent in 2010 to 65 percent in 2011.

United Nations authorities are also moving forward with climate change battle plans, working to leverage the power of technology to help countries mitigate and adapt to the effects of global warming.

The world body’s Technology Executive Committee held its’ first working meeting this month to begin examining how it will manage policy and technical issues related to technology transfer as the policy arm of the Technology Mechanism. The process was established at the last climate summit in Cancun as a means to aid developing countries protect vulnerable populations and work towards the creation of sustainable futures.

“The goal of the Technology Mechanism can only be achieved through a wider and deeper collaboration among all countries with the active engagement of relevant stakeholders, including the research

community, academia and, importantly, the private sector,” Christiana Figueres, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said after the meeting.

The Committee will be looking at ways to increase information sharing on emerging technologies and engaging stakeholders to advance the process.

Continued action from the private sector and its’ stakeholders remains crucial as governments struggle to align around a binding international climate treaty. Climate negotiators from around the world are looking to minimize expectations for progress at the next UN sponsored climate summit beginning at the end of November in Durban, South Africa, and few expect a successor agreement to the Kyoto Treaty to be part of the meeting’s outcome.

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Cutting Criticism of Forest Protection Effort

July 26th, 2011
Posted by Juliette Terzieff

Environmental and human rights watchdogs often levy criticism against governments and corporations for failing to live up to socially responsibility commitments. But this week Global Witness released a report on the World Wildlife Fund’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) initiative highly critical of failures to adequately screen participating companies for illegal timber and habitat destruction activities.

Global Witness’ report Pandering to the Loggers claims that companies associated the GFTN are using WFF association to bolster environmental credibility while continuing to contribute to the destruction of forests and trade in illegally sourced timber. The report names Malaysian logging company Ta Ann Holdings Berhad, British building supplier Jewson and the Swiss-German timber company Danzer Group as GFTN members involved in human rights abuses or environmental degradation of forests.

“WWF should publicly disassociate itself from any company using timber from illegal or unethical sources. It’s shocking that one of the world’s most trusted conservation groups deems it acceptable to take money from such companies. This investigation raises bigger questions about the underlying strategy and efficacy of such voluntary schemes,” Global Witness Forest Campaign Leader Tom Picken said.

The report’s authors noted that producing a report so critical of another NGO stakeholder that is involved in promoting solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental and human rights issues was a difficult decision. But because the GFTN receives public funds and current strategies to combat deforestation are insufficient, publication of the report went ahead.

The GFTN works to link environmentally responsible producers, suppliers and buyers committed to forest protection through sustainable forest management, supply chain transparency, and product certifications. Over 270 entities – including major international brands Avon, Hewlett-Packard, Kimberly-Clark and Marks & Spencer — representing annual trade in wood and forest-sourced products worth $45.2 billion participate in the 20-year old program.

Global Witness said the network lacks transparency, a system for independent evaluations, and monitoring or enforcement mechanisms, and that membership rules are simply inadequate to prevent abuses. The organization has called for an independent assessment of GFTN rules and effects on the world’s forests.

GFTN officials were quick to respond to the Global Witness allegations by highlighting the network’s contribution to creating a multi-sector standard for responsible purchasing and credible product certification.

“GFTN creates market conditions that help conserve the world’s forests, while providing social and economic benefits for the businesses and people that depend on them,” GFTN head George White said in response to the Global Witness report.

“Of course, some GFTN partners have a way to go on their journey to sustainability. But these are precisely the companies that should be in GFTN, and we applaud their commitments to improving their environmental performance. Companies caught flouting the rules and spirit of GFTN will be removed from the network.”

Destruction of the world’s forests and the long-term environmental implications have united a broad array of stakeholders in efforts to slow the pace of deforestation. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2001 the International Year of Forests noting that 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods and that 80% of the world’s biodiversity is housed in forests.

The overall rates of annual global deforestation dropped from 16 million hectares in the 1990s to 13 million between 200 and 2010 according to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization, but the amount of primary forest – areas untouched by human activity – continues to decline.

Efforts to build on forest protection efforts will ultimately be most successful with the inclusion of private sector actors who help manage local, national and global marketplaces’ demand for forest products. The reality that not all companies are able or willing to shift over to sustainable practices should not erode support for efforts such as the GFTN.

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Is telepresence the next ICT business revolution?

May 31st, 2011
 Posted by Future 500 Senior Director, Juliette Terzieff:

 

Telepresence is quickly emerging as a business solution to trim costs, improve energy efficiency and slash carbon emissions. The use of telepresence meetings cuts travel related emissions and in the case of developing countries that don’t yet have the same kind of infrastructure as fully industrialized nations can provide a way leapfrog over some development issues that would drive environmental stress.

Companies across a wide variety of industries, including telecommunications, retail, financial services, healthcare and oil and gas, are already turning to telepresence solutions to meet a variety of operating needs. Telepresence is winning support from executives worldwide over video conferencing technologies because of increased reliability, security enhancements and a more immersive overall experience.

In late 2010, AT&T and BT announced the pairing of their telepresence networks allowing clients of the two telecommunications groups to schedule meetings and connect with users on either network. The two –which operate the world’s largest telepresence networks –operate over 2,000 telepresence rooms worldwide including 1,100 corporate clients. Many ICT and telecommunication industry observers predict this collaboration may set the global standard for telepresence services.

U.K.-based BCS Global Networks Limited, which offers companies video conference and other services worldwide, also operates a network of public videoconferencing and telepresence rooms for business travelers to help them connect globally. In India, Gurgaon-based Business Octane recently ramped up its telepresence capabilities for the market to enable connections of up to 40 locations and 600 people at any one time. The company –which is eying the government sector and large enterprises as clientele –hopes to take their platform global.

The possible effects of a telepresence revolution are astounding. A single company using four telepresence rooms can shave off over 2,200 metric tons of carbon emissions in a five year period, the equivalent of the emissions from 400 passenger vehicles, according to a recently released Verdantix study commissioned by the Carbon Disclosure product and supported by AT&T. Growth in the use of telepresence and videoconferencing could help large U.S. and U.K.-based corporations with revenues over $1 billion to slash around 5.5 billion metric tons of carbon emissions by 2020.

Increased use of telepresence technology also boasts other benefits for companies –such as expenditure reductions, increased employee productivity and more rapid decision making capabilities, the report says.

A recent study from the World Wildlife Fund-UK took a look at air and business travel, and British corporations’ views on emissions cutting measures. Aviation is one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing contributors to carbon emissions –increasing 3 percent annually, according to the report, Travelling Light. Business travel accounts for 25 percent of British passenger trips.

WWF-UK found that over 80 percent of companies have or are planning reductions in their business travel, and that 85 percent believe videoconferencing has an integral role to play in achieving their reduction goals.

Developing economies like China and India are some of the world’s largest contributors to carbon gas emissions. One of the major hurdles hampering efforts to forge a binding international treaty to fight climate change when the Kyoto Treaty expires in 2012 is the insistence by developing countries that they should not be hamstrung in their efforts to develop infrastructure –which increases emissions – when industrialized countries did so freely in decades past. Technologies such as telepresence are touted by supporters as giving developing countries the ability to leapfrog past some infrastructure development that contributes to environmental degradation and climate change.

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Watts, Water and the power of a Billion Chinese Jump

March 28th, 2011

From Pua Mench, Director of Stakeholder Engagement, Asia:

At a recent talk Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent for The Guardian and author of “When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China will Save Mankind – Or Destroy It”, gave disturbing summary of China’s environmental performance – and expressed hope for our collective future.

Watts’ book provides a poignant and informative glimpse into China’s deteriorating environment, from Yunnan Province to Inner Mongolia, which Watts playfully describes as a guide of places not to go. Watts, who is based in Beijing and has spent the past seven years in China, is frank but fair when describing the situation in China. He gives cautious praise to the country’s 12th Five-Year Plan, released in March 14, 2011 and says he is encouraged by the plan, which for the first time ever slightly reduces the pace of economic growth and expands the list of pollution targets. “Government is starting to recognize that there are finite limits on how far you can push the environment,” says Watts. But it remains to be seen whether or not government efforts will improve the situation.

Until a river expedition in search of the Baiji, or Yangtze River Dolphin – one of only five freshwater dolphin species in the world – Watts said he assumed that when mankind wholeheartedly turns his attention to problems he could fix them. The Baiji expedition represented such efforts. Well funded and with cutting edge technology and a leading team of scientists, the journey was forecast to be a success, yet not a single dolphin was found. At the trip’s end a creature that had been on earth for twenty million years was declared functionally extinct, most likely due to environmental stress caused by pollution, river traffic, dams and illegal fishing. Watts regards that story as the most important one he’ll ever write, one that powerfully illustrates the limits of human capability and irreversible and grave consequences of our actions.

In response to the apparent demise of the Baiji, Indian authorities announced plans earlier this year to make extraordinary efforts to save the country’s remaining population of the endangered Ganges river dolphin – of which authorities estimate less than 3,000 remain in the wild. 

Unfortunately, the deeper meaning behind tragedies like the demise of the Baiji is often lost, especially in China where 300 million people live without access to clean water supplies. “Water quality and quantity is by far the biggest concern in China,” says to Watts. Fifty percent of China’s water is not fit for human consumption and another third to a quarter is not fit for any use whatsoever, according to Ministry of Environmental Protection research. Air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, largely stemming from coal-fired power plants, are also a huge problem in China, which over took the United States in 2007 to become the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Even with slightly lowered GDP growth targets, the country’s energy demands are set to skyrocket in the coming decades.

As Watts’ colleague Isabel Hilton noted:

The west invented unsustainable living; China has taken it up with enthusiasm.

We are barely three decades in to China’s industrial and consumption revolution. There are still hundreds of millions of poor Chinese who wish to prosper and consume in a country that wastes so much energy that its average per capita carbon emissions already equal those of France. The most worrying thing about the Chinese industrial revolution is not even the appalling damage that Watts meticulously chronicles, but the capacity for more that is still in the system.

“The good news is that government gets it,” says Watts, and is sincere because they are facing severe environmental crises and cannot avoid addressing them. But the solutions that are being put forth are engineered supply side solutions, like the massive South to North Water Transfer Project, which in many ways exhibits the same hubris as the expedition to save the Baiji.

China is now the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels. Authorities aim for renewable sources to account for 8% of China’s energy supply by 2020. And even with the increase, two-thirds of Chinas’ energy supply will still come from coal (the remaining from nuclear and hydropower sources).

China has made huge investments in the clean tech sector (in fact, it was the country with the highest level of investment in the world in 2009) yet renewables will continue to represent just a fraction of China’s largely coal dominated energy mix.

Such investment and development strategies are ultimately band-aids to the underlying and much bigger problem identified by Watts, Western style consumption habits, which have readily been adopted by the Chinese. More consumption means greater energy and water demands, increased pollution, growing carbon dioxide emissions and fewer and fewer natural resources. “We may be approaching ecological limits to economic growth,” asserts Watts. “We [humans] resemble a swarm of locusts.” Pollution is not the biggest problem, because you can deal with pollution, what you cannot deal with is mankind’s widening appetite for “stuff” which is pushing the environment to its limits.

One of the constant arguments put forth by developing countries, particularly in relation to carbon emissions, is that they should be allowed to grow their economies without restrictions, just as developed countries did—the “develop now and clean up later” model. But this logic loses sight of the fact that we share one planet and finite resources. There may come a point in time at which the environment simply cannot support global consumption patterns. China, home to 1.3 billion people and “the world’s factory” is reaching that point. The extinction of the 20 million year old Baiji should serve as a cautionary tale of what happens when you push the environment beyond its healthy limits.

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Thoughts from the CSR Asia Summit

September 15th, 2010

Posted by Pua Mench, Future 500 Manager for Stakeholder Engagement – Asia

The 8th annual CSR Asia Summit kicked off Tuesday, Sept. 14 in Hong Kong, engaging 400 participants from 25 countries on an array of issues centered on “strategic solutions for sustainability.” Across Asia “CS-who?” is a common response when someone begins to raise sustainability issues to a corporate audience, so the sellout crowd here at the summit is an exciting signal of a growing profile for CSR issues.

There is a long way to go. Even in the very westernized and very wealthy Hong Kong, 86% of companies either do not know what CSR is or do not know what to do about it.  And as a fellow participant from Singapore shared with me later, that number is about the same in her country.

Mark Dickens, Head of Listing for the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKex), suggested that cultural differences are part of the problem. Dickens says that the language used by people in the West to discuss CSR issues with Asia is often perceived as patronizing. He advocated more collaborative efforts as a way forward, for example engaging in conversations and sharing ideas, such as exemplified by the model of the Equator Principles. “A process of inclusion rather than preaching process makes a lot more sense,” said Dickens.

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At a breakout session on the role of business in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Asia, UNICEF’s regional chief David Girling discussed progress in the region and business opportunities presented by the MDGs. Girling said there is untapped potential for private sector, particularly between now and 2015, as business can leverage government pressure to achieve the MDGs.

He offered a few exciting examples of business capitalizing on the MDGs—illustrating a point echoed throughout the day, “CSR is NOT about philanthropy.” For example, India’s Tata—a frontrunner on many levels, including CSR—has developed a low-cost water purifier targeted at low-income groups and rural markets, in an effort to both save the lives of millions who suffer from waterborne diseases and make a profit. The Vietnam-based International Development Enterprises (IDE) is helping to eradicate disease by providing commercial rural latrines. Girling said that innovation of this nature is a huge growth area.

Toby Ernberg, global corporate accounts manager of Vestergaard Frandsen, followed up on this idea, with examples of his company’s own ability to innovate. Vestergaard Frandsen develops products that save lives, are easy to use and long lasting. They are the leading producer of insecticide treated bed nets, the most effective known device for preventing malaria in the developing world. I was particularly impressed by Vestergaard Frandsen’s “Life Straw” product, which is aptly named as it looks exactly like a big straw, albeit much enhanced. The life straw filters up to 1,000 liters of water, removing most waterborne bacteria and parasites.

What I found particularly inspiring about Vestergaard Frandsen is that they adhere to strict CSR principles—they walk the walk, as was made obvious when Ernberg spoke with pride about the trip the entire staff took to Kenya to test the rural poor for AIDS and malaria and offer counseling, medicine and other helpful materials.

Ernberg’s last comment summed up the session nicely, and offered a powerful insight, “Most companies focus on just 10% of the population when developing products, whereas my company focuses on those 90% that need products.”

Note: For those companies wishing to learn more about the MDGs, and gain insight into their current impact/contribution, the Netherlands-based National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development has devised an online tool, the “MDG scan.” www.mdgscan.com/ 

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In the afternoon discussion turned to climate change adaptation, not an entirely uplifting topic but a critical one none-the-less.

A two-pronged conversation emerged, the urgency for action coupled with the confusion among companies over what to do.

Dr. Glen Frommer, Head of Sustainability Department for Hong Kong’s MTR corporation, had this to offer to business, as a way to manage the risks presented by climate change, “As long as companies have a transparent, robust system in place, and trust is in place, they should move forward by taking it one step at a time.” ‘Do so with urgency’ was the silent caveat.

Frommer also encouraged participants to accelerate the realization that climate change will impact rich and poor alike. “What’s happening in Pakistan [the lethal flooding] is going to happen again and again. We are one people with one goal, and not much time to get there.”

I wrapped up the day participating in a discussion on innovative solutions for sustainable value chains. The moderator kicked the discussion off with an insightful remark, “Where the value chain stops is increasingly expanding.” Indeed.  We’re seeing this in China right now, where NGOs are increasingly scrutinizing MNCs’ supply chains, and holding them accountable for suppliers to the nth-tier.

For a company like Proctor and Gamble (the first to present), which has 75,000 suppliers, this is no easy task. One way they are tackling the issue is through their “supplier sustainability board,” which launched P&G’s “supplier environmental scorecard” in May 2010. P&G asks suppliers to report on carbon emissions, wastes and other environmental and social indicators. They also encourage suppliers to bring forward their innovations and ideas, which, if successful, are recognized and rewarded.

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World Water Week opener

September 7th, 2010

This week – for the first time since the United Nations adopted a resolution affirming the fundamental human right to water and sanitation in July – representatives of governments, the private sector, NGOs and academia are gathered at a major international water event, the Stockholm World Water Week.

Ensuring access to clean water for everyone is among the most critical challenges facing our world. It is a complex goal, but one that must remain a core focus for stakeholders across the spectrum if we are to sobering predictions of water shortages and stress in the coming decades.

All this week we’ll be featuring water-related content from the Future 500 staff and guest bloggers looking at topics such as the right to water and pollution in China, as well as a running blog-commentary from EcoMundi CEO Alex McIntosh who is in Stockholm attending the event! (For more on Mr. McIntosh’s experience, click here.)

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“Kick-Off to World Water Week:  Stockholm, Sweden (9/5/10)”

(posted by Alex McIntosh, founder, Ecomundi Ventures)

The annual World Water Week meeting began Sunday in Stockholm, Sweden.  Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), it brings together experts, practitioners, decision makers and leaders from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to today’s toughest water challenges.

Water was once overshadowed by carbon/climate but has risen to the top of the agenda for public, non-profit, and the private sectors.  Three (of the many) drivers for the increased attention:

  • Water withdrawals are predicted to increase by 50 percent by 2025 in developing countries, and 18 per cent in developed countries (UNEP, 2007)
  • By 2030, 47% of the world population will be living in areas of high water stress. (OECD 2008)
  • Increasing regulation of and social scrutiny on corporate water use

Overall, more than 2,500 people are attending the conference this year, representing 135 nations and some 200 convening groups such as the UN.

Private sector presence at World Water Week has grown over the twenty years since the conference inception.  While accounting for just over 10% of the total attendance, large corporations in particular are increasingly utilizing World Water Week to hold strategic dialogues with civil society around key water challenges (Nestle, Coca-Cola, SAB Miller, Unilever, etc as part of the CEO Mandate), and for announcing major public initiatives to showcase their efforts to use water more sustainability (ITT).

The week-long conference program reflects the larger water issues playing out across the planet:  diverse, large in scope but local in flavor, and increasingly requiring the collaboration of the public and private sectors to succeed.  We will keep you updated as the conversation in Stockholm unfolds this week.

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