[ti:Environmental Group Says Few Companies Meet Water Use Targets]
[al:Science & Technology]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-11-03]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Major corporations in industries that produce clothing, food, drinks and technology services use a lot of water.
[00:10.44]However, many companies say they want to be more responsible about the freshwater they use. Drought, floods and extreme weather also threaten their supply chains.
[00:24.47]The nonprofit environmental group Ceres ranked 72 companies for their sustainability efforts.
[00:33.93]Ceres said few of the businesses are close to reaching the 2030 goals set by the group, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
[00:44.84]Last year, Ceres launched an effort to push companies with large water usage to protect water resources.
[00:53.84]Recently, the group released a study that included the corporations Coca-Cola, General Mills and Amazon.
[01:03.17]"There's no doubt that companies need to do better," said Kirsten James.
[01:09.45]She is a program director for water at Ceres.
[01:13.94]Ceres said the companies were chosen from four industries based on their size and use of water. 
[01:22.42]They were ranked based on several factors, including promises to protect the amount and quality of the water they use, as well as the environments that supply it. 
[01:34.45]They were also tested on whether they helped improve access to water and sanitation in communities where they do business. 
[01:44.12]Ceres used publicly available information, including information the companies provided to the government through March.
[01:53.73]None of the companies scored above 70 percent of the points available. 
[02:01.24]Some were considered to be on track to meet the goals set by the nonprofit group, with scores of at least 50 percent.
[02:10.35]Coca-Cola said its water use in 2022 was 10 percent more efficient compared to 2015. 
[02:19.26]The company said it hopes to have 100 percent circular water use.
[02:25.14]That is where all water is used and returned to the watersheds it has been drawn from.
[02:33.10]But the company did not say how likely it was to reach that target, nor how much progress it has made. 
[02:40.67]Coca-Cola also said producing its products does not use as much water as growing what goes into the products it sells.
[02:51.74]"The agricultural ingredients that we use use vastly more water to produce than the actual manufacturing process," said Michael Goltzman. 
[03:02.67]He is vice president of Coca Cola and a sustainability head.
[03:10.27]Reports say technology companies, like Amazon and Apple, use a lot of water to cool the computers in their large data centers. 
[03:20.41]The Ceres study rated both companies below 20 percent progress toward the nonprofit's targets.
[03:29.11]Food company General Mills was among the companies closest to meeting the 2030 targets, at 65 percent.
[03:39.44]Mary Jane Melendez is the company's chief sustainability officer. 
[03:45.24]She said 85 percent of the company's water use is in agriculture. 
[03:51.59]Extreme weather in the U.S. has reportedly affected the company in recent years.
[03:59.11]Melendez gave examples of weather-related problems.
[04:03.46]She said freezing and thawing hurt the company's supply of sugar beets. 
[04:09.87]She also said drought affected its oats supply.
[04:15.21]Michael Kiparsky is director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.
[04:23.97]He said that corporations have an interest in protecting their operations from water shortages. 
[04:31.33]That could push them to make bigger steps to protect freshwater resources.
[04:38.07]Kiparsky pointed out there is no way to enforce Ceres' targets. 
[04:43.58]But he asked, "Does money talk? When it talks, it talks pretty loud," he said.
[04:49.44]I'm Dan Novak.