Tag Archive for Water

11 Apr 2012
Strategic Sourcing

P&G Shares Environmental Sustainability Scorecard

Supply Management reports today that P&G “is sharing its supplier rating system with competitors.” 

More specifically, the consumer goods giant is hoping other firms will take advantage of its “environmental sustainability scorecard” which “allows companies to measure and interpret environmental sustainability metrics across their supply chains, such as energy and water use and greenhouse gas emissions. It also enables companies to identify progress and opportunities for improvement by measuring absolute or intensity improvements in nine metrics over the course of a year.”

Here is a link to the Supply Management post which includes a link to the actual scorecard: http://www.supplymanagement.com/news/2012/pg-shares-sustainability-scorecard-with-rivals/

 

Amit Puri | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
21 Mar 2012
Risk Management

A Tri-state Water Dispute

This post is a follow up to a January 12, 2012, Spend Navigator piece entitled “Water shortages grow as a supply chain risk.” Here is a link to that post: http://spendnavigator.com/?p=859

Bloomberg reports today that a water conflict in the southeast United States portends a difficult future for control over this critical yet finite resource.

In “Atlanta’s water war is first in a gathering flood,” Bloomberg describes something akin to a water war between the states.  Florida and Alabama have joined forces against Atlanta, Georgia, over the diverting of water from Lake Lanier to Atlanta. The sticking point appears to be that Florida and Alabama resent the fact that Atlanta, “the largest city in the U.S. that is not near a major body of water,” did not help finance the dam which formed Lake Lanier (which is in Georgia) in the 1950s. Read more

William L. Heaton, Jr. | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
12 Jan 2012
Market Place Trends • Risk Management

Water Shortages Grow as a Supply Chain Risk

We don’t often think in such terms, but water is a finite resource. Most of it is salt water or frozen underground and, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, merely one-hundredth of 1 percent of the world’s water is potable.

And we’re running out. Yesterday, Daily News and Analysis (DNA) published an article predicting supplies will be nearing depletion in India, China and the Middle East by 2030.

The reasons for this growing world problem include a disproportionate use of water by developed nations, opposition to desalination efforts, imperfect water and market economics, pollution, and world political instability.

In addition to the potentially terrible toll in human terms, businesses need to beware. In a 1/10/12 Bloomberg article entitled, “Water Risk in Supply Chains Draws Investor Scrutiny,” Jonas Kron – a financial advisor specializing in environmentally sustainable investments – says that “water is something that should be keeping CEOs up at night.”

If it keeps the boss up at night, perhaps we should be putting more thought into this potentially huge supply chain disruption.

Here are the links to the DNA and Bloomberg articles:

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_water-supplies-may-run-out-by-2030-in-india-study_1636255

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/water-risk-in-supply-chains-draws-investor-scrutiny.html

 

 

William L. Heaton, Jr. | No comments | Tags: