A new study commissioned by Nestle Waters North America shows that Americans rank clean water as the most important factor to living a healthy life: more than half of consumers (55%) and experts* (60%) say they think about their water usage on a daily basis. But more significantly to industry is the fact that the Perspectives on America’s Water study showed that 53% of consumers and 67% of experts think businesses in the US use too much water. And when asked to grade businesses on their sustainability efforts, including water conservation, the majority of consumers and experts gave them a resoundingly mediocre “C.”
Worse, when it comes to donating time to water conservation efforts and working with community groups on water-related initiatives, experts gave businesses a “D.”
“I think the study may serve as a wake-up call to many businesses, regardless of industry,” Valeria Orozco, Nestle Waters NA’s director of sustainability told Environmental Leader. “In today’s age of consumer activism, businesses cannot afford to ignore consumer concerns.”
*Experts interviewed included government officials, academics, NGO employees, utility business decision makers, and engineers.
The low grade given by consumers to businesses in terms of their conservation efforts shows that there is “definitely room for more efforts to be made,” Orozco told us. “There is also an opportunity for businesses to collaborate and show leadership on these important issues.”
Most consumers say businesses should prioritize several efforts, including:
While consumers and experts alike say they think about their water usage on a daily basis, 42% admit they do not currently conserve water - but say they are willing to do so if they knew enough about ways to conserve in their daily household activities.
In fact, consumers want to be educated: 70% of those surveyed for the study say businesses should be working with community groups on water-related initiatives, and 67% say they should be educating community members on water usage and conservation.
“There is an opportunity for businesses to collaborate and show leadership on these important issues,” says Orozco.
Consumers and experts agree that contamination is the biggest threat to water sources, followed by aging infrastructure and depletion of water sources. For consumers in the western part of the states, drought is the second-biggest concern.
American consumers and experts surveyed believe the best approaches to addressing issues related to access to clean water lies in fixing what already exists. This includes:
Nearly all (96%) of consumers and experts say if we don’t invest in the water infrastructure system in the US now, it will end up costing more in the long run.
There are a number of steps that consumers, businesses, and governments can take, Orozco says. For example:
With these steps in mind, Nestle Waters has committed to certifying 100% of their facilities around the world according to the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard. The company was the first in North America to certify any facility according to AWS, Orozco says. “To date, we have certified six facilities in North America, including all five of our bottling factories in California, and one in Hope, Canada, putting us on track towards our commitment to certify all our facilities around the world by 2025.”
The company has also instigated an education initiative among its own staff. For the past two years, the company has worked with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to develop a learning module for all company associates to teach them about their connection to water and empower them to be better water stewards.
Nestle Waters is now working to make the water education tool available to other Nestle operating companies.
Penn Schoen Berland (PBS) conducted more than 6,100 interviews online in the US among both consumer and expert audiences in March, 2018, for the Perspectives on America’s Water study.
