Don't treat water risk in isolation, warns SABMiller chief

Maxine Perella in edie.net: A joined up approach to water, food and energy is critical if big business is to safeguard against future risks in water security, according to SABMiller chief executive Alan Clark.

The boss behind one of the world's leading breweries highlighted the pressing issue in the company's latest sustainable development report, and said his company was now taking steps to collaborate with governments across the world to address the problem.

As part of this work, SABMiller will be actively encouraging governments to set resource policy in an integrated way to maximise both economic and social value.

"Water security risk cannot be tackled in isolation, it needs to be addressed alongside food and energy security with businesses, governments and civil society working in partnership to develop practical, local solutions," Clark stated.

He said that water scarcity was "already becoming a reality" for some of SABMiller's breweries, and that the company had worked hard to improve water efficiency within its operations - last year saw an 8% improvement, while fossil fuel emissions per hectolitre of lager produced fell by 10%...

Photo by Tomasz Sienicki, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license