SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ENV300 Session 2

Recap of last 2 Session 1 slides

Responding to the environmental challenge: Business environmental performance is defined as the ability to manage the extent of harmful effects due to the interaction with the environment (e.g. the ability to prevent, eliminate, reduce and/or control any such harmful effects) Benefits of performance: Cost advantage (e.g. cheaper finance, lower insurance) Competitive advantage (e.g. improved media coverage, improved product quality) Increased market share Business environmental performance is defined as the ability to manage the extent of harmful effects due to the interaction with

Water as a limited resource

What is water? Complex interplay of local and global

influences Global water challenge Water for business Redistribution challenge Water stress & usage Wastewater management case

What is water?

Water a colourless, transparent, odourless, tasteless liquid compound of oxygen and hydrogen

Concise Oxford Dictionary

Everyone understands that water is essential to life. But many are only just now beginning to grasp how essential it is to everything in life food, energy, transportation, nature, leisure, identity, culture, social norms, and virtually all the products used on a daily basis. With population growth and economic development driving accelerating demand for everything, the full value of water is becoming increasingly apparent to all.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Sustainable water management

Enough water, of sufficient quality, at the right time, and at the right place to meet the ongoing needs of this and future generations and of the ecosystem as a whole

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Problem statistics ...

The world is not running out of water, but it

is not always available when and where people need it. Climate, normal seasonal variations, droughts and floods can all contribute to local extreme conditions. The global situation

Less than 3% of the worlds water is fresh

the rest is seawater and undrinkable Of this 3% over 2.5% is frozen, locked up in Antarctica the Arctic and glaciers, and not available to man Thus humanity must rely on this 0.5% for all of mans and ecosystems freshwater needs.

Problem statistics ...

Locating the 0.5% fresh water: 10,000,000 ckm stored in underground aquifers

Since 1950 there has been a rapid expansion of groundwater exploitation providing:

50% of all drinking water 40% of industrial water 20% of irrigation water

119,000 ckm net of rainfall falling on land after

accounting for evaporation 91,000 ckm in natural lakes Over 5,000 ckm in man-made storage facilities reservoirs

There has been a 7-fold increase in global storage capacity since 1950.

2,120 ckm in rivers constantly replaced from rainfall

and melting snow and ice

1 cubic kilometre (ckm) = 1,000,000,000 cubic metre

Problem statistics ...

Complex interplay of local and global influences

People
Population growth, urbanization, sanitation,

water supply, demographic and structural changes, increasing per capita consumption of water with economic development and lifestyle changes, rising water supplysanitation gaps, public health and pollution burdens, the growing reach and impact of city water needs and discharges on ecosystem services and products

Planet
Ecosystem degradation, biodiversity losses,

climate change leading to sea level rise and changes in the hydrological cycle, rainfall patterns, natural disasters (floods, droughts, hurricanes), the melting of ice caps and glaciers, the rates and patterns of river flow, man-made disasters (such as chemical spills)

Past legacy systems

Inadequate or poorly maintained infrastructure,

financing and pricing systems, pollution loads, water over extraction, water-service pricing, cultural practices and attitudes that hinder innovation

Politics
Differing cultural assumptions and means of

judging water challenges, inadequate political and organizational systems, lack of political leverage, upstream-downstream issues, access, equity, lack of education, cooperation or conflict between users, including intergenerational, international and intraurban disputes, water as lacking any political value as an issue, manipulation of information, lack of a political voice for the ecosystem

Policies
Lack of coherent policies and their application

(governance), varying emphasis on a range of policy objectives (for example, efficiency, security of supply, wider access, and equity), shift towards adaptive policies, issues of best practice, public-private partnerships, capacity-building, corruption, difficulties inherent in creating policies regarding embedded water in global trade, global water management issues

Global water challenge

Efficiency challenge More value per drop and more drops for less Leads to innovation Security challenge Quantity and quality for all Freshwater stress is increasing and faster than

expected ... How much water will be withdrawn with respect to the amount that is naturally available?

Global water challenge

Global water challenge

Water for business

All businesses depend on water Continuity and future success of any business are

impacted by the availability, cost, and quality of water at many points along the value chain, including upstream (in the production and supply of raw materials), midstream (in what businesses make from raw materials or other preprocessed inputs), and downstream (consumers need water, and everyone needs water to be treated and recycled) In the near future the water management challenges facing humanity will become more complex, as the prospect of water shortages, scarcities, and stresses will increase

Redistribution challenge

Water management is, by definition, conflict management.

Worldwatch Institute

Water is not distributed evenly over the globe -

fewer than 10 countries possess 60% of the worlds available freshwater supply:

Brazil, Russia, China, Canada, Indonesia, U.S.,

India, Columbia and the Democratic Republic of Congo

China ranks fourth in the world for renewable water

resources, but because of its large population, it has only 1/4 of the global average of water per

Redistribution challenge

Redistribution challenge
By 2010, low-income and emerging economies

often lack safe drinking water but if they want clean water, they have to pay for it This leads to rich getting richer and poor getting poorer citizens distrusts governments Also in developed world, old water systems results in greater costs in 2015, for the 1st time, middle-class households struggle to pay for water bills

Causes of water stress

Excessive withdrawal of surface waters Excessive withdrawal of water from

underground aquifers Pollution of freshwater resources Inefficient use of freshwater

Water usage

Water for agriculture

Cooling water

Domestic
1.8 million people

die every year from diarrhoeal diseases (including cholera) the equivalent of 15 killer tsunamis each year or 12 Boeing 747 crashes every day

Virtual water ... 1kg = ?

Water does not

convert proportionately into food products Increased population and wealth has increased demand for higher food products

Trends affecting freshwater use

Population growth Increased affluence Expanding business activity Rapid urbanisation Climate change Aging infrastructure

Best management practices

Drip irrigation uses plastic pipes that release water

directly onto the roots of the plants without flooding the entire field, and recapture any excess water for reuse Ashkelon, Israel a new desalination plant on the Mediterranean Sea, just north of Gaza is delivering freshwater at USD 0.50 per cubic meter down from USD 2.50 in the early 1990s. This was achieved by an improved reverse osmosis system requiring less energy to drive seawater through the desalination unit Singapore is recycling gray water to drinking quality standards by using a new filtration technology (Stockholm Industry Water Award winner in 2007). An auto/truck manufacturer operating in an arid region of Mexico reduced its water consumption per unit of output by 90% (Stockholm Industry Water Award winner in 2001)

Wastewater management case

Discuss and present in groups: How can water be used more efficiently How is wastewater treated Opinions relating to the Kuwait wastewater management

Next week ...

Soil as a limited resource

Managing soil Articles will be emailed by Friday afternoon These articles are required readings Group work: be prepared to discuss and present ideas and opinions generated from the readings