The food industry needs a better approach to improve global water and food security, and to support sustainable agriculture and development.
It’s also important that corporate water targets align with global policy goals, such as the U.N.
This is where Context-Based Water Targets (CBWTs) come in to play.
While tools and methodologies for setting CBWTs and measuring companies’ water footprints are under development, this work is still in its infancy compared to what’s available to help companies measure their carbon footprint.
We started out in water management for our direct operations, first with a total global water reduction target and then with a target focused on our sites in stressed watersheds.
An example of this is our work on rice.
Environment, the International Rice Research Institute and WWF, we’re supporting 500 basmati rice farmers in Pakistan to improve productivity and reduce water use.
However, we decided that it was better to set an imperfect target and start work making improvements now, rather than wait for better data to support better targets.
Many leading food and beverage companies including Nestlé, Danone, Coca-Cola and Mars — together with leading water-focused NGOs — are supporting the Water Benefits Accounting Methodology Project to standardize how the benefits of water stewardship projects are measured.
Membership in the Alliance for Water Stewardship and disclosure of water impacts via CDP are good starting points to build transparency and expertise on water and to begin to collaborate with others to address shared water challenges.