Ask a casual question about a company’s need to pursue sustainability, seeking answers to justify such a pursuit. The chances are that energy efficiency and the huge problem associated with greenhouse gas emissions will dominate the conversation. After all, much publicity has been given to the damage caused by excess energy production and consumption and the need to mitigate carbon emissions.
There is no doubt that carbon emissions should be a considerable focus of corporate sustainability work around the world, but global water usage has been relatively ignored. Our water usage is even more unsustainable and will undoubtedly turn out to be a bigger problem than global warming. If we listen to experts, they will tell us that if we don’t make significant and substantial changes, we will run out of water before we run out of renewable fuel.
A trusted watchdog organization, the 2030 Water Resources Group, estimates that our global water requirements will increase by 50% in the next 20 years. If we don’t make efforts to cut back, they say that this will represent 40% more than our ability to supply, a sobering thought.
In terms of global water usage, industrial and commercial use accounts for about 20% of the total. This is expected to double in the next twenty years. While it’s true that agriculture remains the largest consumer of water around the world, corporations can make a significant difference if they integrate water sustainability into the mix.
While it is sometimes difficult to persuade businessmen to look way beyond their borders, a concerted effort could make an aggregated difference, in a similar way to carbon mitigation. It is, however, alarming to hear that emerging countries such as China are expected to account for about 50% of the additional industrial global water usage through 2030.
Evidence supplied by the Water Resources Group points to how inefficient we are. Over a 15 year period ending in 2004, corporate water usage efficiency was unchanged, increasing by just 1%. Very little publicity has been given to this poor statistic, as most attention has been paid to our increase in carbon emission efficiency.
Looking at the bigger picture, we should understand that energy and water should be inexorably linked. Did you know that in the industrial sector, 50% of global water usage is linked to the production of energy?
Agricultural production is guaranteed to increase, as the world’s population grows in an unsustainable way. There will be an exponential increase in the amount of global water usage in that sector. More pressure will be brought to bear on the commercial, domestic and industrial sectors to cut back even further on this scarcest of all commodities.
Daniel Stouffer has a lot of information about global water usage and how a visit to www.verisae.com will aid you.
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