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Environmental Group Says Few Companies Meet Water Use Targets
Major corporations in industries that produce clothing, food, drinks and technology services use a lot of water.
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.
The nonprofit environmental group Ceres ranked 72 companies for their sustainability efforts. Ceres said few of the businesses are close to reaching the 2030 goals set by the group, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Last year, Ceres launched an effort to push companies with large water usage to protect water resources. Recently, the group released a study that included the corporations Coca-Cola, General Mills and Amazon.
"There's no doubt that companies need to do better," said Kirsten James. She is a program director for water at Ceres.
Ceres said the companies were chosen from four industries based on their size and use of water. 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. They were also tested on whether they helped improve access to water and sanitation2 in communities where they do business. Ceres used publicly available information, including information the companies provided to the government through March.
None of the companies scored above 70 percent of the points available. Some were considered to be on track to meet the goals set by the nonprofit group, with scores of at least 50 percent.
Coca-Cola said its water use in 2022 was 10 percent more efficient compared to 2015. The company said it hopes to have 100 percent circular water use. That is where all water is used and returned to the watersheds4 it has been drawn5 from.
But the company did not say how likely it was to reach that target, nor how much progress it has made. Coca-Cola also said producing its products does not use as much water as growing what goes into the products it sells.
"The agricultural ingredients that we use use vastly more water to produce than the actual manufacturing process," said Michael Goltzman. He is vice1 president of Coca Cola and a sustainability head.
Reports say technology companies, like Amazon and Apple, use a lot of water to cool the computers in their large data centers. The Ceres study rated both companies below 20 percent progress toward the nonprofit's targets.
Food company General Mills was among the companies closest to meeting the 2030 targets, at 65 percent.
Mary Jane Melendez is the company's chief sustainability officer. She said 85 percent of the company's water use is in agriculture. Extreme weather in the U.S. has reportedly affected6 the company in recent years.
Melendez gave examples of weather-related problems. She said freezing and thawing8 hurt the company's supply of sugar beets9. She also said drought affected its oats supply.
Michael Kiparsky is director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He said that corporations have an interest in protecting their operations from water shortages. That could push them to make bigger steps to protect freshwater resources.
Kiparsky pointed10 out there is no way to enforce Ceres' targets. But he asked, "Does money talk? When it talks, it talks pretty loud," he said.
Words in This Story
drought — n. a period of much less rain than normal
sustainability — n. the ability to continue to use a resource without using it up
factor –n. Something that produces a result
access — n. the ability to get or use something
sanitation — n. the equipment and structures needed to process waste and wastewater in a place
efficient — adj. using the right amount of a resource without using too much
watershed3 — n. the land area drained by a large river system
vast — adj. very large or wide
thaw7 — v. when ice or something that is frozen returns to a higher temperature and melts
1 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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2 sanitation | |
n.公共卫生,环境卫生,卫生设备 | |
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3 watershed | |
n.转折点,分水岭,分界线 | |
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4 watersheds | |
n.分水岭( watershed的名词复数 );分水线;转折点;流域 | |
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5 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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6 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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7 thaw | |
v.(使)融化,(使)变得友善;n.融化,缓和 | |
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8 thawing | |
n.熔化,融化v.(气候)解冻( thaw的现在分词 );(态度、感情等)缓和;(冰、雪及冷冻食物)溶化;软化 | |
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9 beets | |
甜菜( beet的名词复数 ); 甜菜根; (因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而)脸红 | |
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10 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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