Newsletter

Roundtable event on water stewardship

PepsiCo and Ethical Corporation hosted a roundtable event to discuss how to improve water stewardship. The event was attended by leaders from business, trade associations and NGOs with the aim of building a consensus on how best to safeguard the future on an increasingly rare resource.

04 December 2009

Water stewardship is emerging as one of the most serious environmental, social and economic threats to the modern world. As a business that is dependent on a stable and reliable source of water we are keenly aware of the importance of establishing a comprehensive approach to this issue that has the support of all related parties.

The risks posed by water scarcity, such as droughts, conflict and water quality, impact on all users of the water table - including business. An excess in water supply can also have far reaching consequences - as we saw when the British potato crop our Walkers Crisps rely on was damaged by floods in 2008.

The water roundtable was hosted by Walter Todd (Vice President of Operations, PepsiCo) and chaired by Toby Webb (Managing Editor, Ethical Corporation). It brought together leaders from business, trade associations and NGOs to discuss how best to protect water supplies for the future.

From the initial topics on the agenda, outlined below, a number of related issues were raised and discussed. The most notable of these were:

  • The value of collaboration between different owners and users of the water source.
  • The importance and difficulty of making agricultural practices sustainable - from our existing learnings on irrigation through to the problems with drainage and leakages.
  • How localised the issue of water stewardship is - no two water sources are the same and each one requires a tailored approach.

After the roundtable, Walter Todd spoke with Toby Webb about why water sustainability is a key issue for PepsiCo. A podcast of the interview is available on the Ethical Corporation Website here.

A full report of the roundtable will be posted on the PepsiCo website.

Notes

Attendees included representatives from:

  • Marks and Spencer
  • Sainsbury's
  • British Soft Drink Association
  • Food and Drink Federation
  • Crops for the Future
  • Institute of Human Rights in Business
  • Natural England
  • WWF

To help frame and focus the debate, three main topics were identified by PepsiCo and Ethical Corporation for the roundtable:

  • "Given that shifting sourcing away from water-stressed regions and countries is difficult, how can suppliers be best engaged to reduce their water footprint?"
  • "How do you get users of the same watershed to take collective responsibility for its resilience?"
  • "How do you engage farmers (in both developed and developing markets) to focus on water?"

Tagged: Water, Walter Todd