"What will happen if the world's biggest companies don't take water seriously?", 13 Apr 2016

Under the new Sustainable Development Goals, 193 countries have pledged to deliver water for all by 2030. With the UN recently publishing a list of indicators to evaluate progress, now is the time for the business sector to step up and contribute…

Despite a string of widely reported droughts in recent years, the private sector still generally treats water as though it were an abundant resource…

…SAB Miller aims to use three litres of water per litre of beer (it currently uses 3.3 litres). Swiss food giant Nestlé says it will reduce the water consumption in all its European production sites by 40% by 2020 (compared to 2010 levels), while Coca-Cola has pledged more opaquely to “replenish” all the water it uses…

Targets must respond to where a company’s main impact lies. Cate Lamb, head of the water programme at CDP, an investor-led data transparency organisation, cites the example of a chemical company that sets tough reduction targets for its water use but says nothing about water quality or contamination…

They also need to be locally specific…

[Also refers to Anheuser-Busch InBev, Ford, General Mills, Target]