Companies should invest in partnerships to secure water availability and quality and protect both the environment and long-term profitability, according to Karl Lippert, President, of global brewer SABMiller’s Latin America business.

In a keynote speech last week at The Economist World Water Summit, Mr Lippert outlined the business case for water investment, highlighting three key issues:

• Tackling water scarcity is critical to releasing untapped prosperity at all levels – from rural livelihoods through to company growth and for entire national economies
• Businesses using water as a core part of their operations should let go of a “compliance mind-set” and quantify the business value that needs to be protected through investment in water security
• Partnerships between communities,  central and local governments, businesses and NGOs, are the only effective solution to tackling shared resource risks such as water scarcity

In his speech, Mr Lippert outlined how SABMiller has partnered with The Nature Conservancy, a leading environmental organisation, and local utility companies to develop water funds in several countries in Latin America. These funds use market incentives to encourage local farming communities in sensitive watersheds to develop more efficient and sustainable ways of farming, while at the same time rehabilitating and protecting the watersheds. This intervention, over time, lowers the cost of water for communities and businesses while augmenting supply.

Mr Lippert commented:

“Water needs to be seen by both businesses and policy-makers as far more than simply an environmental issue. It is a social issue, a health issue, a development issue, a business issue and an economic issue. SABMiller invests in partnerships to secure water for our business growth and for all other water users around us. This is a business investment, contributing to our profit, as well as one that delivers strong social and environmental benefits.”

Targets to address shared water risks

In July 2014 SABMiller announced the launch of a new sustainable development strategy, Prosper, which set out a set of ambitious new sustainability targets to achieve by 2020.

The 2020 targets set out how SABMiller plans to address five ‘shared imperatives’ – big challenges that SABMiller believes are shared by society, business and government. The company seeks to address them both locally and internationally in partnership with suppliers, customers, consumers and communities.

Securing shared water resources for SABMiller’s business and local communities is one of the five shared imperatives. By 2020, SABMiller has pledged to:

• Secure the water supplies they share with local communities through partnerships to tackle shared water risks
• Further reduce water use to 3.0 litres of water per litre of beer and 1.8 litres of water per litre of soft drink
• Have programmes in place to mitigate shared water risks for our key crop origins at risk

Through its Water Futures Partnership SABMiller is already tackling shared water risks across 12 projects in nine countries.

In the year ended 31 March 2014 SABMiller used an average of 3.5 hl water to produce 1 hl beer, achieving the target to improve brewery water efficiency by 25% (against a 2008 base) a year early.

SABMiller’s report The Water - Food - Energy Nexus: Insights into resilient development was launched in January 2014 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The report, produced in association with WWF, looks at 16 countries or states, comparing the ways in which their development patterns have managed their different mixes of resources and different capacities to make use of those resources.