Analysis: Heineken brews up a better report.
Sustainability pervades the Dutch brewer’s first integrated report from cover to cover but it could use its global presence to be a greater advocate for action to tackle climate change, says Peter Statham Fierce competition among brewers has transformed the global beer market.
And it’s serious about sustainability.
For the first time, Heineken has integrated sustainability information in its annual report and no longer publishes a separate sustainability report.
In contrast to some attempts to integrate reporting, Heineken does a good job, including sustainability references almost from cover to cover.
And the brewer has saved €13.5m (£11.5m) through water efficiency projects since 2009, a clear business benefit.
‘Without water Heineken wouldn’t exist’ The Sustainability Review, a section within the report, provides an overview of progress against Brewing a Better World, Heineken’s sustainability strategy, consisting of six areas: water, CO2, sourcing, responsible consumption, health and safety, and communities.
Perhaps it’s time for absolute water targets, or, even better, science-based water targets that will contribute to avoiding a global water crisis.
Heineken ‘should raise its voice’ Considering the potential impact of climate change and water scarcity on Heineken’s business, I’d like to see more about how it’s using its influence, and presence in 190 countries, to advocate for climate action while it is “brewing a better world”.
pete.statham@contexteurope.com See also: Heineken shows its bottle on climate Heineken sustainability report beer Integrated reporting SDGs water management

A company aims to raise 500 000 days of clean water to help with the water crisis in South Africa.
Procter & Gamble SA has announced it has a goal to raise 500 000 days of clean water, as part of the global P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme, an which initiative looks to tackle water issues currently facing South Africa.
As we have seen, flash flooding, as a result of drought, can also wreak devastation on underprivileged communities.
Since 2004, the programme has provided more than 11 billion litres of clean water to desperate communities around the world.
To help address the problem of access to clean water in Africa, in the last 12 years, the programme has managed to provide over 6 billion litres of clean drinking water to 40 countries on the African continent through its P&G water purifying packets.
“Clean water does not only quench thirst, promote health and prevent unnecessary deaths, it means more people can work and enhance productivity.
In fact, the World Health Organisation has estimated that every one US dollar invested in clean water, sanitation and hygiene generates four US dollars in increased productivity, which enables sustainable and equitable economic growth,” said Mabaso, addressing the long-term effects of water in destitute communities.
This will assist in achieving one of the United Nation’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals – ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
The CSDW continues to provide clean water to our neighbouring countries as well, to ensure that even more communities have their lives enhanced by this basic human right,” Mabaso concluded in his statement.
P&G’s clean water programme comes at a crucial time in South Africa.

Water Research Foundation Launches New Project on Forging Relationships Between Clean Water Agencies and the Community.
The Water Research Foundation (WRF), a leading sponsor of innovative research supporting the water community, is pleased to announce a new project that will help clean water agencies explore how forward thinking utilities and companies leverage emotional motivators in public engagement programs to develop sustainable relationships with their customers.
Awareness of water scarcity is disconnected from the deceptive abundance of this resource in many developed countries.
Social scientists such as Paul Slovic and Daniel Kahneman have long recognized the power of emotional involvement (the affect heuristic) in decision making and hence community building.
The project will develop a report and toolkit that provide best practices, lessons learned, and evaluation metrics for utilities to use when developing messages and education and engagement programs to create meaningful emotional connections in alignment with their specific communities using scientific and technical practices.
“There’s plenty of research out there showing that emotional connections lead to long-term bonds between organizations and their stakeholders,” said Rob Renner, CEO of the Water Research Foundation.
Governed by utilities, WRF plans, manages, and delivers scientifically sound research solutions on the most critical challenges facing the water community in the areas of drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, and reuse.
For more information, go to www.WaterRF.org.
About KKS Advisors KKS Advisors is an advisory services firm helping clients to find innovative solutions to create more sustainable business models and communities.
KKS Advisors also worked with Stewart Investors to conduct a research project on water scarcity in global emerging markets.

The following is a transcript of the WaterWorld Weekly Newscast for January 23, 2017. Hi, I’m Angela Godwin for WaterWorld magazine, bringing you water and wastewater news headlines for the week of January 23. Coming up… Court upholds EPA water transfer rule Manual offers guidance for making wastewater projects more sustainable Scientists develop method to extract radioactive elements from water California water allocation estimate increases after winter storms Matt Damon talks water at World Economic Forum Last week, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency when it deemed the agency’s 2008 ‘water transfer’ rule reasonable — reversing a previous 2014 decision. The rule permits government agencies to transfer water between waterbodies without an NPDES permit. The case centered around the transfer of water from the Schoharie Reservoir in the Catskills to Esopus Creek via an 18-mile-long tunnel that environmentalists maintain deposited dirty water into the popular trout-fishing stream. Eight other states, as well as several environmental groups, joined New York in opposing the rule. A dozen states, along with New York City, supported it. The Water Environment Federation’s Envision Task Force has released a tool to help the water sector apply the Envision® sustainability rating system to wastewater infrastructure projects. The Envision system and planning guide was developed in 2013 by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at Harvard University. It provides metrics that can be used to compare the strengths of design ideas for infrastructure projects by awarding points and credits on 60 criteria in five categories related to sustainability. WEF’s task force assessed the system’s relevance to wastewater and in its new manual, “Applying Envision 1.0 to Wastewater Projects,” rates the applicability of each of the Envision credits. The manual also describes each objective, reasons for the relevance rating, potential areas in which to apply credits, as well as additional resources. To learn more, visit the Sustainability topic in the “Resources” section at wef.org. Researchers at Rice University and Kazan Federal University in Russia have found a way to extract radioactivity from water and that they say could help treat contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant accident. Research shows their oxidatively modified carbon (OMC) material is highly efficient at absorbing radioactive metal cations, including cesium and strontium. According to lead researcher James Tour, the material leverages the porous nature of two specific sources of carbon: an inexpensive, coke-derived powder known as C-seal F, and a naturally occurring, carbon-heavy mineral called shungite found mainly in Russia. OMC can also trap common radioactive elements found in water floods from oil extraction, such as uranium, thorium and radium. As a result of recent heavy rain and snow in the west, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has increased its estimate of this year’s State Water Project (SWP) supply from 45 to 60 percent of most requests. The state isn’t quite out of the woods yet. DWR Acting Director William Croyle said: “Our water supply outlook is definitely brighter, but we still haven’t shaken off the effects of our historic drought.” Many in the state still depend on bottled water and some reservoirs remain low. DWR said that with more rain and snow in the forecast, it hopes to be able to increase the allocation further. Final allocations will be announced in April. In international news, last week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Matt Damon highlighted the need for clean water and sanitation in the world’s poorest areas. The actor was joined by Gary White, the co-founder of his non-profit organization Water.org, at a packed Q&A session to discuss why he wants to provide safe water to millions of people worldwide. “I mean leaving aside the fact that every 90 seconds a kid is dying because…

About 300 students at a Long Beach high school are exploring ways to make their community environmentally sustainable and preparing to share what they learned at a youth summit later this month. On their own, students ranging from freshmen to seniors at Cabrillo High School approached teachers a while back about researching ways to stretch water supplies in drought-prone Southern California and to combat climate change locally. “The project is basically student driven,” said Karen Shoop, an English teacher at Cabrillo High who has helped with the project. “Instead of it being a top-down from the district to the teachers to the students, ‘Hey, guess what, we’re assigning this,’ it was a, ‘We’re interested in doing this research. How do we make this happen?’” she…

2016 has become the year for water. From the World Economic Forum, COP22, to the Budapest Water Summit, water has been widely acknowledged as a key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and essential to the climate change solution. Here are the defining moments of 2016 that put water security and sustainability on the global agenda like never before: January – At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim announced their intentions to form a High-Level Panel on Water to provide the leadership required to champion a comprehensive, inclusive and collaborative way of developing and managing water resources, and improving water and sanitation related services. Ban Ki-moon gathers heads of state for political response to water scarcity https://t.co/YWE5lrgoCd #wef2016 — Development Pros (@GuardianGDP) January 25, 2016 February – A new study found that the total cost of providing water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to meet the SDG water and sanitation targets is estimated at around $114 billion per year – three times the current investment levels. In addition to money, the study says strong institutions, accountability, and mechanisms that turn investment into effective services for people who need it, are also critical. — World Bank Water (@WorldBankWater) February 12, 2016 March – The Government of India and the World Bank signed a US$1.5 billion loan agreement for the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Support Operation Project to support the Government of India in its efforts to ensure that all citizens in the rural areas have access to improved sanitation, with a focus on changing behavior and eliminating the practice of open defecation by 2019. April – The UN Secretary-General and the World Bank Group President appointed members of the High-level Panel on Water….

WATERLOO, ONTARIO, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 — On January 27, 2017, the Southern Ontario Water Consortium (SOWC) was proud to host an announcement of the first large project to receive funding under its Advancing Water Technologies (AWT) program.
GE Water & Process Technologies (GE) will work with the University of Guelph (U of G) along with McMaster University, to test new ways to reduce energy consumption while at the same time generating energy from the wastewater treatment process and utilizing beneficial resources from wastewater.
"The consumption of energy in wastewater treatment is substantial," said Glenn Vicevic, Product Management Executive, GE Water & Process Technologies.
By working with SOWC and the Universities of Guelph and McMaster on this pilot, we are gathering critical data to improve energy recovery and bring new technology to market."
Lloyd Longfield, Member of Parliament for Guelph made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).
"Canada is committed to investing in clean energy technology producers because clean technologies – such as those that will result from this sub-project – have the potential to advance the way communities manage their resources, consume energy and improve quality of life" said MP Longfield.
This part of the project will be led by McMaster University researcher Younggy Kim and will include the development of a numerical model simulation and includes a full scale pilot installation at a facility in London, Ontario for validation.
The AWT investment includes nearly $600,000 through both the U of G and McMaster projects.
GE will invest $900,000 for the project.
SOWC’s Advancing Water Technologies program, which supports collaborative, industry-led technology development projects, is funded by FedDev Ontario through a $12-million contribution announced by Prime Minister Trudeau in 2016.