In line with Ceres’ Valuing Water Finance Initiative Benchmark report, no firm has met 75 p.c of the “Company Expectations for Valuing Water,” which embody requirements for water amount and high quality, ecosystem safety, entry to water and sanitation, board oversight and public coverage engagement.

Eleven corporations stand out as “on monitor,” although, having met 50 to 75 p.c of the standards. The very best-ranking corporations had been all from the meals sector, with Cargill, Danone and Basic Mills popping out on high. I not too long ago spoke with Truke Smoor, Cargill’s international sustainability director for water, to know the philosophy behind Cargill’s top-ranked water program and the place it’s headed. Listed here are my key takeaways.

Don’t let good be the enemy of excellent

One query constantly comes up in water, biodiversity and deforestation conversations: Ought to we act with imperfect knowledge or await higher knowledge? On the subject of water, giant meals corporations have to maneuver ahead with imperfect knowledge, taking a regional strategy when farm-level info is unavailable. Firms ought to ask, “Who’re my suppliers and the way can we work collectively to cut back water impacts?” 

It is sensible to focus first on probably the most water-intensive components, which differ by firm. For Cargill, these embody cocoa, maize/corn, palm oil, soy and cattle merchandise. For Mars, it’s rice, maize/corn, sugar, mint and grain. There’s nobody proper reply or greatest observe — the influence and alternative for decreasing water impacts will differ based mostly on the amount of the ingredient being produced and water safety (each present and projected with local weather change) within the sourcing area.

Combine water throughout applications

In agriculture, a water technique centered solely on water is insufficient. Strong water methods embody different parts of sustainable meals programs, akin to wholesome soils and functioning ecosystems. 

For sustainability professionals, this implies trying throughout applications to contemplate co-benefits with out compromising the integrity of anybody mission. Cargill’s inner course of seems at initiatives holistically, Smoor mentioned, and permits groups to tag them with the suitable impacts (water, land). This method permits them to calculate and monitor the related co-benefits of every mission and supplies transparency throughout groups. 

It’s uncommon to listen to a sustainability skilled communicate publicly a couple of cross-cutting mission on this means. Maybe the extreme stress for corporations akin to Cargill to handle large-scale land use conversion and deforestation makes them much less prone to share small wins that reduce throughout land and water, akin to defending riparian buffers on agricultural lands. Plus, initiatives with water advantages are usually native in scale and overshadowed by international carbon initiatives. However complete and streamlined approaches are desperately wanted to handle the water and biodiversity crises.

Create enabling circumstances for systems-level change

One space the place Cargill got here up quick in Ceres’ report was on collective motion. It’s a phrase that’s so overused within the water area that I typically discover myself questioning if individuals are simply saying it to sign they belong within the dialog. So I used to be stunned by Smoor’s reply. She didn’t fake to be centered on collective motion within the conventional sense of the phrase; quite, she described Cargill’s position as establishing enabling circumstances for large-scale systems-level change. 

Why? Its footprint and provide chain is so large that even a small shift in water use in its manufacturing or sourcing practices can rapidly get to scale by itself. In 2024, she’s anticipating Cargill to give attention to implementation utilizing regenerative agriculture as a pathway to enhance water resilience throughout provide chains. Different areas of early exploration embody improved grazing administration in protein provide chains and improved irrigation effectivity.

Sadly, one important water-saving answer remains to be lacking from that narrative: an total discount within the manufacturing and consumption of animal merchandise. The water footprint of meat and dairy eclipses that of different crops. Within the Colorado River basin, for instance, 55 p.c of whole water consumption is used to develop feed for livestock, totaling 1 trillion gallons per yr . We will and will enhance water use effectivity in our current programs, however actually catalytic options will embody a shift away from our present meat-heavy diets. Firms akin to Cargill are uniquely positioned to drive that change.

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