Business Strategy For Water Challenges

Water is a resource under increased stress, with its management now cited as one of the greatest risks to business continuity and growth. This concise guide for professionals offers strategic steps for developing a corporate water stewardship strategy. It will enable you to: define business water risks, and the opportunities associated with those risks; explore, through sector-specific profiles, risks associated with regulation, reputation, external response and engagement, and physical incidents; develop a clear plan and process for creating, managing and mainstreaming a corporate water strategy; identify several initiatives and new risk tools that your company can use to stay on top of best practice in water management. With the advent of risk tools, and a growing list of testaments around business risk from water, we are now able to respond more appropriately to how this resource is impacted by and impacts upon business. Use this book as your guide as you begin to build your company's strategy around water.

The tangible value of increased water efficiency, reuse and recycling and improved social license to operate are moving more companies to adopt water stewardship strategies. This book frames an expanded strategy for water stewardship and business value creation, including brand value, that benefits a range of stakeholders including consumers, customers, investors and employees. The book shows that until recently the linkage between full business value and water stewardship has been missing from the corporate agenda. This linkage and value creation from a leading water strategy is increasingly important to socially responsible investors and "aspirationals" who value companies that have a social mission or focus to their overall business strategy. In general the largest portion of a company’s market capitalization is intangible value and understanding how a water strategy contributes to this intangible value is essential. The authors include cases studies and a framework or path forward to guide companies as they seek to build leading water strategy that goes beyond water stewardship to drive full business value from this investment. The book establishes the linkages and value from an integrated water and business strategy and an approach for companies to follow.

In the past businesses have viewed water as a minimal operational cost and not a strategic issue. However, water has now emerged as a critical issue for both corporations and the public sector in response to increased water demand, climatic risks and potentially negative impacts on brand value. This innovative book provides up to date information on global water issues and describes how companies can not only address these challenges but also implement high value global water strategies. It shows: Why water is a critical business issue for companies which now face water risk to their operations and brands; How new concepts such as embedded water and virtual water are forcing companies to think differently about how they use water to manufacture products; That companies need to develop a corporate water strategy to manage it as a key business issue and capture the real value of water; How companies can develop partnerships with non-governmental organizations to implement water strategies

Straightforward strategies for achieving sustainable practices and business success in the modern organization In Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact, a team of veteran sustainability experts delivers a practical toolkit for creating a forward-looking and sustainability-focused business. From Ecolab’s origins in sustainability 100 years ago to its ambitious 2030 environment and social impact goals, this book lays out a roadmap for business transformation and continued growth – today and for the next 100 years. You’ll explore the principles and methods required to build and lead a sustainable company. You’ll discover how to evolve your focus on sustainability over time, as your organization transforms and grows. You’ll learn to: Build and maintain momentum for sustainability initiatives and cement your firm’s commitment to new practices through iteration and aligning business units around core, shared sustainability goals. Embed new sustainable practices into your organization’s governance and operations DNA Identify and leverage specific sustainability levers that impact a wide variety of key performance indicators Create a set of business processes that enable sustainable future and engage your employees in a higher purpose An essential playbook for students of sustainability and business, this book is a must-read for the modern manager, executive, or director seeking to solidify their business strategy and future-proof their company. Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact describes the holistic and comprehensive approach to responsible business that we’ve all been waiting for.

This is a Festschrift in honour of Professor Asit K. Biswas, for his manifold contributions to water resources policy and management and his extensive efforts over six decades to generate, synthetize, apply, and disseminate knowledge at national and global levels. Global Water Resources: Festschrift in Honour of Asit K. Biswas includes invited contributions on global water issues from 23 globally renowned leaders in the public and private sectors, as well as academia, who have made significant contributions to the field of water resources policy, management, development and governance. The vision and expertise of this distinguished group of experts provides a unique focus on unfolding water issues and their bearing on world development This book will be of great value to scholars, students, and policymakers interested in water resource governance, sustainable development, and climate change. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Water systems are building blocks for poverty alleviation, shared growth, sustainable development, and green growth strategies. They require data from in-situ observation networks. Budgetary and other constraints have taken a toll on their operation and there are many regions in the world where the data are scarce or unreliable. Increasingly, remote sensing satellite-based earth observation is becoming an alternative. This book briefly describes some key global water challenges, perspectives for remote sensing approaches, and their importance for water resources-related activities. It describes eight key types of water resources management variables, a list of sensors that can produce such information, and a description of existing data products with examples. Earth Observation for Water Resources Management provides a series of practical guidelines that can be used by project leaders to decide whether remote sensing may be useful for the problem at hand and suitable data sources to consider if so. The book concludes with a review of the literature on reliability statistics of remote-sensed estimations.

This book examines the role played by business in urban water governance by analyzing the evolution of the global private water sector along with four public-private partnerships in Mexico and the U.S. The local nature of water services often hides the global developments behind the rise of transnational water corporations, which have gone from being local operators to becoming dynamic and powerful actors within an interconnected transnational space for water. This book focuses on the French groups Veolia and Suez, two of the most prominent private actors in global water governance, and the development and adaptation strategies of both companies in the cities of Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Atlanta, and Milwaukee over the past 30 years. Drawing on over 100 interviews conducted with corporate executives, public authorities, and local users of water services, this book moves beyond the simplistic dichotomy of the public-private debate and develops a theoretical framework that analyzes the economic and political power wielded by transnational business actors in global water governance. Not only does the book explain how Veolia and Suez strategically mobilize resources at difference scales in order to expand their global operations, but it also provides a nuanced picture of how state regulation remains of central importance to understanding the dynamics and evolution of the global water sector. Students and scholars interested in business and the environment, including public-private partnerships, business management and transnational corporations, and water governance, will find this book of great interest as will professionals and policymakers working in these fields.