AT&T Building Water Efficiency

People’s Insights: Volume 2, Issue 31

Reputation | Employee Engagement | Citizenship

AT&T and EDF’s water saving initiative

Source: environmentalleader.com

To maintain their 'aquaprint,' AT&T partnered with the Environmental Defence Fund and used data analysis to reduce their water consumption at cooling towers.

Good for business2

Source: thecro.com

This project is designed to help AT&T find a cost-effective way to reduce its water footprint and operational costs, and also contributes to their position as a socially responsible company. In fact, AT&T ranked #1 on Corporate Responsibility Magazine‘s 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, and recognized in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America for the fourth year.

Using data to identify savings

From 2010-11, AT&T worked to identify sites with the highest water consumption. In 2012, AT&T partnered with EDF to optimize consumption and to measure the resulting savings in cost across pilot facilities. The Building Water Efficiency toolkit was developed from these pilot projects, and gives organizations simple cost-effective resources to build their own water efficiency programs.

Sharing the Toolkit

AT&T and EDF provide the toolkit for free along with a series of free webinars to introduce and promote the toolkit. The toolkit itself comprises of a Water Scorecard and Water Efficiency Calculator to evaluate and identify consumption and savings opportunities, and a Cooling System guide and video series to educate stakeholders.

The ever-rising importance of water

Sources: Business Insider, NYTimes, National Geographic

McKinsey's report Charting our Water Future (2009) notes that in the last 50 years, the world’s population has doubled and global GDP has grown tenfold, agricultural and industrial output has boomed, and cities have burgeoned. This growth, and these competing uses, have put global water resources under ever-increasing strain.

Collaborating to solve today's social challenges

Pacific Institute Water Scarcity & Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses & Investors

Thinkers and doers point out that collaboration is key to tackling social challenges and that stakeholders need to pool together knowledge, information and data to make progress.

Collaborative actions are particularly crucial in assessing and addressing climate change impacts, since there are large gaps in knowledge and information related to climate change and water, especially data and prediction modeling at the watershed level.

“Can’t do it alone”

Beth Shiroishi Vice President of Sustainability and Philanthropy, AT&T

Source: 3blmedia.com

Brands too are cognizant of the need for collaboration, and are actively working with non profit organizations and government bodies to tackle these challenges.

As AT&T seeks to address some of society’s greatest challenges – access to education, use of resources, and the dangers of texting while driving – one of our most important realizations has been that we cannot go it alone. This past year, we undertook initiatives with groups like Communities in Schools, Environmental Defense Fund and the National Organizations for Youth Safety to tackle these tough issues.

Increasing role of private sector

MSLGROUP India's Ashraf Engineer notes that private companies will have an increasing role to play in water management.

The expertise, resources and planning that professionals bring to the table are rarely replicated by the government. It won’t be long before the government starts handing over water management to private firms, just as we are seeing in the power sector.

Ashraf Engineer Vice-President – Content & Insights, MSLGROUP (India)

Engaging employees around Sustainability

Source: Honda

Several brands are designing programs that involve employees in their sustainability initiatives. For example, Honda crowdsources ideas with its annual Innovative Ideas Convention, GE organizes Eco Treasure Hunts and Levi's leveraged their employees collective social presence with its Waterless program.

People, data and devices for Sustainability

Sources: Charity Water, NatGeo's Changing the Course, Twitter

Brands, organizations and entrepreneurs are also energizing people around their sustainability initiatives, and are beginning to use data and connected devices to help people measure and manage their carbon footprint.

Real & virtual engagement is needed

Bloggers and consultants note the need for sustainability engagement programs to evolve with the times, to stay relevant.

In a digital world, the entire model of sustainability engagement has to shift. It is no longer enough to just have brown-bag lunches or a river cleanup at your headquarters and call it your engagement program. Creating dynamic content that is relevant, exciting and accessible is crucial, and using a social network to distribute your content is especially effective.

Toby Russell and Thomas Hendrick Natural Capitalism Solutions

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