We often come across businesses being disrupted due to water challenges even as government's struggle to address water issues and maintain minimum standards. Short term efforts to tackle water woes will not be very beneficial unless water is reliably delivered and sustainably managed.
Intensive efforts are being made by businesses to enhance water use efficiency and reduce their pollution potential. Nevertheless water challenges still pose long-term viability risk. This risk can be mitigated by a shared responsibility for protecting and managing our environment and resources through a voluntary, market based approach by businesses. Corporate Water Stewardship is defined by the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) as 'The use of water that is socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial, achieved through a stakeholder-inclusive process that involves site and catchment-based actions. Good water stewards understand their own water use, catchment context and shared risk in terms of water governance, water balance, water quality and important water-related areas; and then engage in meaningful individual and collective actions that benefit people and nature.'
In order to drive the water stewardship agenda, a corporate should understand its own operations, water use, operating environment and the impacts of its own operations on the environment. It is important to analyze the risk holistically across operations and the supply chain. Shared risk is the basis of water stewardship and offers an opportunity to harness the shared value of water. Water Stewardship starts with companies responding to their own water related risks through improvements in policies and processes, collaboration with external stakeholders including its supply chain to understand potential impacts and work collectively for enhancement of efficient water management including at the catchment level.
Thus water stewardship implies that there are internal and external components to water issues and can be classified into two categories, namely, within the fence activities, and outside the fence activities. The initiatives by corporates for achieving compliance to regulations are within the fence activities. This may also include initiatives within the business units to go beyond compliance like process changes, technological upgradation, etc. Outside the fence initiatives are activities by businesses outside their premises for the community and the catchment as a whole. It is not only taking up responsibility to improve the situation but also recognizing the shared responsibility for protecting and managing our environment and resources. Overall, water stewardship involves better understanding of the company's water accounting, water footprint, use efficiency, audit, demand management, risk assessment, risk mitigation, investment in watershed management, development of new tools, standards, policies and participation in local and national water policy debates.
Water stewardship initiatives provide a long term opportunity for availability of sustainable water resources with reduced risk to businesses. It allows businesses to minimize their impact, engage and collaborate with other stakeholders to reduce collective impact and help strengthen management of resources. It provides corporates with competitive advantage by attracting highly sensitized consumers and investors. It generates a sense of responsibility among the stakeholders and also creates confidence amongst stakeholders in company policies. It provides an opportunity to enhance the company's image. Overall it allows companies to emerge as thought leaders and build competitive advantage in the space.
Many organizations have been agents of change in promoting water stewardship. The UN Global Compact's CEO Water Mandate provides clarity and guidance through reports and guidelines for collective action, accounting, terminology and public policy. The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) offers the global benchmark in responsible water stewardship, to enable companies to understand their water use within the context of a catchment, and work collaboratively to achieve shared objectives. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has well established programs to convert the business risk into collective action at the basin level. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is supporting businesses to accelerate movement for water management, from risk assessment to implementation of response strategies at the watershed level. It has also developed the Global Water Tool to identify risk and foresee potential opportunities. The FICCI Water Mission is engaged in promoting corporate water stewardship by recognising excellence in sustainable water management every year.
Water Stewardship as a concept has started to gain pace in India. Leading businesses are making significant progress in reducing their impact on water resources through their water stewardship strategies. The India Water Stewardship Network (IWSN) has been formed to engage multiple stakeholders in better understanding and acceptance of the water stewardship framework in the Indian context and demonstrate implementable projects. The Network adopts the AWS standards for defining the framework in India. Businesses are constantly striving to improve their water use efficiency through adoption of processes and new technologies and are auditing every unit of water use. They are encouraging transparency in water use by urging supply chains to also do so. Businesses in India who have taken the stride forward for water stewardship include the Tata Group, JSW Steel, Coca Cola, Pepsi Co, Jain Irrigation, ITC limited, Mahindra and Mahindra, Nestle, SAB Miller etc.
Major beverage companies like PepsiCo, Coca Cola and Sab-Miller have been actively spearheading water stewardship initiatives. They have been able to reduce their water usage by 10 to 26% and have improved water use efficiency by 25%. They have achieved 'Positive Water balance' by replenishing more water than extracted by the industry through rain water harvesting, construction of check dams, pond restoration and supporting agricultural water efficiency initiatives. Pepsi Co has educated farmers to adopt direct seeding for paddy cultivation in order to prevent flood irrigation, thereby reducing water use by 30%. Coca Cola has been involved with farmers for installing drip irrigation, thereby reducing water and fertilizer cost with increased yield and have helped farmers adopt laser levelling to reduce water use by 25 to 30%. Moreover they have been actively involved in providing improved water and Sanitation facilities, access to safe water and community rain water harvesting systems. SAB Miller India has engaged in Integrated Water resources management by driving crop productivity enhancement, soil and water conservation and livelihood generation for small farm holders. It is also exploring ways to integrate bio-treated wastewater from beer to improve agricultural production in India.
Industrial giants like the Tata group, ITC group, Mahindra and Mahindra have been steering the water stewardship goals. The Tata Group in India have taken a stride in voluntary disclosure of water usage data through its publication "Water Footprint Assessment -Tata Chemicals-Tata Motors-Tata Power-Tata Steel: Results and Learning" s for twelve plants across India and their supply chains, then assessed the sustainabilitcy of their water footprint and prioritized strategic actions for reducing associated impacts. ITC has been contributing by basin level water security plans, mapping of local aquifers for recharge, sustainable irrigation, water cropping systems and community based training programs.
Further to these initiatives, Businesses can provide valuable baseline data on water quality, available water quantity, groundwater depletion etc. with expertise and technology to the government, to allow informed decision making and effective implementation of plans. They can act as agents of change by promoting best practices among stakeholders in their watersheds and also encourage government to allocate resources to the vital water issue. Businesses have the strength to mobilize global business communities for driving corporate water stewardship initiative in their domains and bring best practices from across the world . Thus they can become enablers and facilitators of improved water management in the public interest.
The initiatives for Water Stewardship are incomplete without the role of other stakeholders - government, financial institutions, civil society, consumers and citizens. The Government should support commitment to accountability as well as develop and implement policies for promoting corporate initiatives. It should also aim at developing strategies for incentivizing good water management practices by businesses. Financial institutions can aid in driving sustainable water management goals by creating systems to assess water related initiatives by corporates and invest in water projects or fund companies that advance sustainable water goals. Civil society can help identify and implement methods for building consumers ability to identify responsible companies. Consumers can encourage corporate water stewardship initiatives by making purchasing decisions and policy advocacy.
Businesses, investors and civil society can support development of systems that allow consumers to identify and demonstrate their preference for responsible businesses. Capacity building and awareness is an indispensable exercise for all stakeholders.
New businesses first need to understand the scope and scale of water risk and then map internal operations for water footprint, water use efficiency and reduction in pollution including supply chain operations. Based on the contextual assessment, businesses can develop a strategy to integrate water management into operations and engage with other companies, government, communities, experts, NGOs to develop collective action strategies and leverage improved performance in the value chain.Businesses can engage in water transparency systems like CDP Water Disclosure, CEO Water Mandate, Alliance for Water Stewardship and other activities at the catchment level.
As water stewardship is a new concept in India, it is important for us to encourage as we look to manage scarce water resources in the interest of the economy, communities and the environment.
