CSR And Water Conservation

Last week, we released a detailed report chronicling Google's 112 diverse water projects worldwide that hold the potential to replenish over 8 billion gallons annually. How can we best combine learnings from these local initiatives with technologies like AI and precision irrigation to accelerate progress towards water security? This is something I've been thinking about this Earth Month. ICYMI Google is committed to water stewardship, aiming to replenish 120% of the freshwater we consume across our offices and data centers by 2030. This past World Water Day, we shared encouraging progress and highlighted new initiatives focused on the critical nexus of water and agriculture. Here's a snapshot of our global water stewardship efforts: 🟢 We aim to replenish 120% of the freshwater consumed across our operations (offices and data centers, on average) by 2030. 🟢 As of the end of 2024, we are supporting 112 water stewardship projects spread across 68 watersheds globally. 🟢 In 2024 alone, these collective efforts replenished an estimated 4.5 billion gallons of water. 🟢 Once fully implemented, this portfolio of projects has the estimated capacity to replenish over 8 billion gallons annually. Recognizing agriculture's significant water footprint, four of our recently launched partnerships specifically target water management and efficiency in farming communities supplying water to our operational areas. These include: 🔵 Supporting critical water infrastructure for drought-affected smallholder farmers in Chile's Maipo Basin (with Agua Segura & BEF). 🔵 Demonstrating innovative manure drip irrigation to conserve water and protect groundwater in California's dairy industry (with Sustainable Conservation). 🔵 Piloting precision gravity-powered drip irrigation to reduce water demand for rice cultivation in Taiwan (with N-Drip Gravity Micro Irrigation). 🔵 Applying AI-powered tools to help potato farmers in France optimize irrigation, saving water and resources (with xFarm Technologies). These collaborations underscore how targeted investment and technological innovation can support both agricultural livelihoods and water security. You can read more in Google's 2025 Water Stewardship Project Portfolio summary report, and our blogpost here - https://lnkd.in/gFs7wn5k #WaterStewardship #Sustainability #Google #SustainableAgriculture #WaterConservation #TechForGood #Circularity #EarthMonth #WorldWaterDay

I live in the "Evergreen State," but the name doesn’t mean we’re immune to climate challenges. Despite our rainy reputation, I was surprised to learn that parts of the Olympic Peninsula have faced severe drought for years - and that threatens our Chinook salmon population, which is a crucial food source for Southern Resident orcas. Amazon is committed finding solutions that benefit people and the planet, and that’s why we’re working in partnership with Washington Water Trust, local farmers, and the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe to protect the Dungeness River—one of Puget Sound's most productive salmon habitats. The initiative funds a voluntary "irrigation pause" for farmers during critical salmon migration periods and coordinates "pulse flows" that help fish navigate upstream. It’s also an important example of the power of partnerships. Indigenous wisdom, agricultural practicality and corporate leadership all contributed to finding common ground and driving progress. Recently, I was able to spend some time getting to know our partners and see this work firsthand - touring the river, farms and land where this work is taking place. Everyone involved is giving their time, but also compromising a little bit to make things work. It's amazing to see how much goodness we can create when we can come together and find solutions that work for everyone. You can learn more about the work in our video below and our blog, here: https://lnkd.in/gBYUHTDc

The World Bank’s latest report, Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future, should be required reading for every business leader. Not because it describes another environmental challenge. Because it maps one of the most profound systemic risks to operating models globally. The report identifies emerging water-scarcity hotspots, quantifies the economic consequences, and outlines strategies to better manage demand, diversify supply, and allocate water more equitably. But what sits beneath the analysis is a message we cannot ignore: Our economies are built on assumptions of stability that no longer exist. The systems that built our prosperity are driving our vulnerability at pace. Most business models still rely on: Predictable water availability. Low-cost inputs. Reliable supply chains. Stable social and geopolitical conditions. Water scarcity is not a distant risk; it’s a structural one. And structural risks cannot be managed with incremental change or siloed sustainability projects. They require: Systems leadership. Circular economy strategies that reduce dependence on finite inputs. Resilient design that accounts for interconnected pressures. Governance models that recognise shared resources, shared risks, and shared responsibility. At Coreo, we see organisations becoming increasingly aware that resilience isn’t built through compliance; it’s built through the ability to redesign value chains, collaborate beyond traditional boundaries, and invest in long-term system health. The takeaway from this report is clear: If your operating model assumes the future will behave like the past, it’s already dead in the water. Water scarcity is a wake-up call. Systems leadership is the rapid response.

We just finished mapping water risk for all 9,500 data centers on Earth. The results should worry anyone planning AI infrastructure. Over the past months, our team has been building the first global, facility-level assessment of data center exposure to water stress — combining hydrological modeling with the location of every currently identified data center worldwide. Paper is in progress, but the early findings are striking enough to share now. What we're finding: → 1 in 4 data centers today already sit in locations where water demand exceeds local supply for at least part of the year → That rises to 1 in 3 under future hydrological conditions — this isn't a distant risk, it's a planning horizon problem → The US hosts nearly 4 in 10 of the world's data centers, and 1 in 5 of those are already in water-stressed regions → 4 in 10 data centers globally sit in areas where they're drawing from the same water as cities' municipal supply — meaning growth here is a direct governance and permitting issue, not just an engineering one Why this matters for business decisions: Water risk is hyper-local in a way energy risk isn't — you can import power, you can't import a river. That makes site selection, water rights, and community relationships a bigger part of AI infrastructure strategy than most capacity-planning models currently account for. The companies that get ahead of this — through siting choices, alternative cooling, or transparent water accounting — will face far fewer stranded-asset and permitting risks than those that don't. Curious to hear how operators and investors in this space are already thinking about water exposure. #AI #DataCenters #WaterRisk #Infrastructure #Sustainability

Working in the food and beverage industry, you start seeing water differently. It’s essential to everything—from growing ingredients to making products to running operations. But sometimes, the biggest changes come from rethinking the everyday. Take potatoes. They’re 80% water, and when cooked to make Lay’s, that water naturally evaporates. Instead of letting it disappear, we now capture, purify, and reuse it—turning what was once lost into a resource. In Thailand, this saves up to 60 million liters of water a year at one site. It’s just one example of how we’re building water resilience and improving watershed health in the face of climate change. In 2024, PepsiCo supported 16 new water replenishment projects across 9 countries, returning over 1.7 billion liters to local watersheds. In China, our partnership with the China Women’s Development Foundation is helping 24,000 farmers improve irrigation and save more than 4 million tons of water. Water is becoming more unpredictable. But resilience is built through action—rethinking how we use it, replenishing what we take, and protecting this vital resource for future generations. #WorldWaterDay2025

Looking "beyond carbon" to help navigate troubled waters. Carbon dominates the climate change agenda, yet the impacts are often felt through changes in the water cycle. As a nature-related climate risk, water could constitute 7-9% of global GDP. It's worth checking out CDP's 'Navigating troubled waters' report, which provides a deep dive to help financial managers better understand the challenging and complex space of water. Four steps have been recommended as a call to action: ▶ Adopting a systems approach: understanding how water and climate are interrelated ▶ Assessing risks and opportunities: identifying and evaluating business impacts ▶ Using change levers: using influence to support sustainable water management ▶ Documenting and disclosing: driving transparency through accountability. Claire Elsdon, global director of capital markets at CDP, said: "While the carbon emissions side is generally well understood, we see significant demand from our signatories to better navigate the broader nature considerations, chief amongst which is water." Full report link 👉 https://shorturl.at/VJABC #water #waterscarcity #climatechange #risk #finance

Leading the way in Water Management 💧 As the pressures of climate change, population growth, and biodiversity loss mount, innovative approaches to water management are critical. Across the UK, good to see leading water companies embracing Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to address these challenges sustainably, combining traditional engineering with the power of nature. Here’s how Anglian Water, South West Water, and United Utilities are transforming the landscape with NBS initiatives: 1. Anglian Water: Pioneering natural resilience: ~ Holistic catchment management: programmes like their Pioneering Catchment Schemes work with farmers to prevent pollution at its source, ensuring better water quality before it even reaches treatment plants ~ Natural Flood Management: By restoring floodplains, Anglian helps protect communities while improving habitats for wildlife ~ Blue-green infrastructure projects: In urban areas, Anglian promotes solutions such as sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) to manage rainfall and reduce urban flooding 2. South West Water: Upstream Thinking: ~ Partnerships w/ landowners: Collaborating w/ farmers, SWW reduces agricultural runoff, improving water quality and reducing treatment costs ~ Wetland Restoration: Projects in areas like Exmoor and Dartmoor restore natural landscapes, enhancing biodiversity and improving water retention to mitigate drought risks ~ Flood risk management: By slowing water flow and restoring natural channels, South West Water addresses flooding while creating habitats for wildlife 3. United Utilities: Unlocking nature's potential: ~ National leadership: Their £8.9 million national programme, in collaboration with The Rivers Trust and others, explores solutions such as peatland restoration and constructed wetlands to enhance water quality and resilience ~ Integrated planning in PR24: United Utilities’ forward-thinking PR24 strategy emphasises embedding NBS across operations, from raw water protection to wastewater management These initiatives highlight a shift toward solutions that work in harmony with nature, providing long-term benefits for communities, ecosystems, and water management systems. Why it matters?: NBS are more than just good environmental practice—they’re cost-effective, sustainable, and community-friendly. By reducing reliance on energy-intensive treatments and hard infrastructure, NBS help tackle some of the UK’s most pressing water management challenges, from flooding to water quality and biodiversity loss. Nature as Critical Business infrastructure. 💡 A Call to Action These pioneering projects show the transformative potential of NBS. For water companies, governments, and communities alike, the opportunity lies in scaling up these initiatives and embedding them into everyday practices. Let’s celebrate and amplify these efforts, driving innovation and sustainability in water management for future generations. 💧🌱 #NBS #NFM #UKWater

For decades, we’ve built solutions to a problem we helped create. We made bigger reservoirs, higher flood defences, more treatment plants, and longer pipes. Yet water still isn’t where it needs to be, when it’s needed, or in the right amount. So we keep building. But these solutions are piling up on a system that is falling apart underneath. Goldman Sachs Asset Management recently published Finding Investment Opportunities in the Global Response to Water Stress. One in five public companies worldwide relies heavily on water for their revenue. By 2040, the world will need $13.2 trillion invested in water infrastructure, which means annual spending must more than double from today’s $380 billion. Long before we built water systems, nature had its own. Soils absorbed rain and released it slowly. Wetlands filtered water as it passed through. Floodplains spread out and slowed down surges. Catchments managed water flow across the seasons not perfectly, but reliably. We didn’t replace this natural system. Instead, we damaged it and then built over the harm. GSAM looks at the opportunity in three ways: (1) managing downside risk, (2) improving margins, and (3) tapping into long-term growth. This is a solid approach. But there’s a deeper issue that affects all three: the real limitation isn’t just old infrastructure, it’s the degraded natural catchments that this infrastructure relies on. This is the key change. When a landscape is damaged, it becomes a liability. Compacted soils let water run off instead of storing it. Drained wetlands speed up runoff rather than slowing it. Bare catchments can cause both floods and droughts in the same year, causing too much water, then too little, then too much again. The cost of managing these problems keeps going up. But if we restore the landscape, the system can work again. Soils hold water, wetlands filter it, catchments manage flows through the seasons, and water gets where it needs to be, when it’s needed, and at the right cost. This turns a liability into an asset. This is where the opportunity grows. Payments for ecosystem services, contracts to reduce flood risk, and water quality improvements all offer long-term, reliable returns linked to real assets. Restoration isn’t just a cost, it’s an investment in a restored catchment that pays back. Nature-based infrastructure doesn’t replace engineered solutions like smart meters, leak detection, or desalination. Instead, it helps these systems work better. It reduces their workload, extends their lifespan, and lowers their costs. It also does something engineered systems can’t do on their own: it builds value over time. Right water. Right place. Right time. Nature already manages this. We just need to stop working against it and start investing alongside it. The real opportunity isn’t just fixing the pipes, but rebuilding the system the pipes rely on. https://lnkd.in/dNtinWNu

Water the investment risk? Our new Danske Bank white paper is finally OUT!! Our analysis shows that 39 Nordic companies dependent on water in their operations generate DKK 1,700 billion in revenues while operating in high or extreme water-stressed areas. That equals around 13% of Nordic GDP – and that’s a conservative estimate, as value chains are not included. So what’s the issue? 💧Many of these water-dependent companies are not disclosing whether they measure, mitigate, or prepare for water risk. 💧This leaves them exposed to production disruptions, higher costs, license-to-operate challenges – and ultimately investor pressure. 💧and it won't stop here: scenario modelling shows that company exposure to water stress will only increase in the future. This is not a future dystopia: 🚗 Tesla’s Berlin gigafactory faced costly delays due to groundwater protests. 🍺 Constellation Brands wrote down $660 million abandoning a brewery in Mexico. 🌊 Antofagasta had to invest $1.5 billion to secure seawater access in Chile. The risks are systemic. Today, more than 4 billion people live under water-stressed conditions for at least one month of the year. The WEF Global Risk Report 2025 lists water shortages as a top-five risk in 27 countries. The Stockholm Resilience Centre confirms the planetary boundary for freshwater has already been crossed. By 2050, 31% of global GDP is projected to be exposed to high water stress. In our research, we combined company revenue data, asset locations, materiality data, and water stress maps – structured via the TNFD-aligned LEAP framework – this can enable investors to: ✔ Identify water-exposed holdings ✔ Inform engagement strategies ✔ Integrate water risk into portfolio construction We also include a deep dive on beverage companies - a sector that is for obvious reason very dependent on water - and compare Nordic players to their global peers. The results highlight the different approaches taken by global beverage companies. Nordic companies are not yet waterproof. But with the right tools, data, and investor engagement, they can be. This paper offers a concrete starting point for that journey. Find the paper here: https://lnkd.in/dekSVkFJ #Danskebank #responsibleinvestments #waterstress #dkfinans Peter Lindström, CFA, Allan Emanuelsson

As someone who grew up in Chhattisgarh, this made me incredibly proud. ❤️ We often hear headlines about droughts, falling groundwater levels, and climate change. This time, the headline was different. Villagers across 551 Gram Panchayats in Mahasamund conserved nearly 31 crore litres of water in just 15 days. How? Not with expensive technology. But by working with nature. Over 3.41 lakh small water conservation structures were created before and during the monsoon, including: 💧 Soak pits to allow rainwater to percolate into the ground instead of flowing away. 🌱 Contour trenches dug along slopes to slow runoff, reduce soil erosion, and increase groundwater recharge. 🏞️ Check dams built across small streams to hold rainwater temporarily, allowing it to seep into the aquifers while reducing flood velocity. 🌾 Farm ponds to store rainwater for irrigation during dry spells, reducing dependence on groundwater. 🌿 Existing ponds and drains were also desilted and restored, increasing their storage capacity before the rains arrived. Individually, these structures may seem small. Collectively, they transformed an entire district's ability to capture rainwater. As someone from Chhattisgarh, I often feel our state doesn't receive enough recognition for community-driven sustainability initiatives. This is proof that climate resilience doesn't always require billion-dollar investments. Sometimes it requires thousands of people digging thousands of small pits, each contributing a little. That's how ecosystems recover. That's how groundwater returns. That's how communities become resilient. Maybe the future of climate action isn't always about building something bigger. Maybe it's about building millions of small solutions that work together. What if every district in India launched a similar campaign before every monsoon? The impact could be extraordinary. #WaterConservation #Chhattisgarh #ClimateAction #GroundwaterRecharge #RainwaterHarvesting #NatureBasedSolutions #ClimateResilience #Sustainability #CommunityAction #WaterSecurity #India