• Over 25 international business leaders will gather in London on the 26-27 November to discuss the fastest growing and most pressing of sustainability concerns, water stewardship
LONDON, UK, Oct. 6, 2008 -- The impact of water on business is steadily increasing -- and is becoming a growing concern for many different companies in many different industries. As Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow, has said, "Water is the oil of the 21st century." No business that takes sustainability seriously will be able to ignore the issues surrounding water stewardship in 2009.
It is with this in mind that Ethical Corporation have spent months researching water and its impact on business. The result of this intensive research is The Water and Business Summit (26 - 27 November, London), a two-day conference designed to address business concerns on water scarcity, efficiency and reuse.
The Water and Business Summit is designed for European businesses that are becoming increasingly aware of water stewardship as a business issue, and would like to see what the impact of increasing shortage (and cost) be on their company. Conference Director Nick Johnson says that "Many people I have spoken to are concerned that they still do not have a clear idea of how water will impact on their business model. Our Summit is designed to address these concerns -- and give CSR and Sustainability professionals an insight into how forward-looking companies are already addressing water stewardship. It should be an interesting couple of days."
Taking place on the 26th and 27th November in London, the Summit will bring together leading business experts on water, including 11 signatories of the UN's CEO Water Mandate.
Contributors include Claus Conzelmann, Vice-President of Environment at Nestle; Andrew Smith, Global Director of CSR at PepsiCo and Sylvain Lhote, EU Affairs Director at Borealis. Other companies represented include Intel, Coca Cola, Unilever, Alcan, SAB Miller, Rio Tinto and Goldman Sachs.
Joining these experts will be representatives of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Wateraid and WWF -- to ensure that all different views are given an airing.
Sessions to be covered at the conference include:
• Blue gold: Why water is becoming increasingly important to your business
• Water footprinting: How to measure your footprint -- and act on the results
• Water neutrality and offsetting: Unhelpful buzzwords or realistic aims?
>> More information on the Water and Business Summit
Ethical Corporation is an independent publisher and conference organizer, launched in 2001 to encourage debate and discussion on responsible business.
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