A Corporate Challenge

Global demand for fresh water continues to grow while most of the world's water systems are showing signs of stress and failure. Yet every business, community, individual, and ecosystem depends on clean freshwater to survive and prosper.

Water availability is declining due to increasing demands, unsustainable withdrawal rates, difficulties in finding new supplies, pollution and contamination, and changing climatic patterns. Often considered a local supply and demand issue, concerns over availability are increasingly beginning to take on regional, national, and international proportions. Water shortages and pollution affect security by exacerbating human health problems, encouraging population displacement, increasing conflicts between competing users, damaging ecosystem health, and impeding sustainable development.

Finding common ground among corporate, government, human health and environment interests is critical to ensuring both water availability and economic stability. Corporations can play a unique role in the development of a more coordinated, forward-looking, and sustainable water strategy to ensure adequate fresh water for all.

Corporate leadership and commitment to action now are vital to addressing the global water crisis. Companies who take precautionary actions through conservation efforts will not only help to protect their own future needs for water but will also reduce future risks to health and the environment in communities where they have a presence. Many water conservation strategies also offer benefits of increased efficiency and lower overall costs. Human and environmental needs can be met without sacrificing economic success.

Earth Day Network (EDN) invites corporations to take the Corporate Challenge and to become a partner in the global effort to solve one of the most immediate threats to human health and development, the decline and degradation of the world's fresh water supplies.

The Earth Day Network Corporate Challenge includes:

1. Stakeholder Dialogue
2. CorporateAssessments
3. Corporate Commitments
4. Verification and Public Reporting
5. CorporateReinvestment in Communities
6. Sector Leaders

The Six Key Principles of the Corporate Challenge

Principle 1

Stakeholders Engagement - Corporations agree to convene relevant stakeholders to assess their impact on freshwater resources and the downstream impacts from their operations and supply chain. Stakeholders should include appropriate governments, community organizations, individuals, nongovernmental organizations, and others.

Principle 2

Corporate Assessments - Corporations recognize that their operations and supply chain have impacts on freshwater resources through water use and water pollution. Corporations agree to conduct a systematic assessment of this water use and its local and regional consequences.

Principle 3

Corporate Commitments - Corporations will develop targets and implement strategies to significantly reduce their freshwater use and its consequences.

Principle 4

Verification and Public Reporting - Corporations agree to participate in a verification system to assess their success in reaching identified targets for reducing their fresh water use and its consequences. Corporations agree to make public the results of this verification process on an annual basis.

Principle 5

Corporate Reinvestment in Communities - Corporations in consultation with relevant stakeholders agree to identify and invest in projects that protect local and regional water resources, increase public access, and improve water quality. Corporations may also identify other projects to improve health and safety in the communities in which they operate.

Principle 6

Sector Leaders - Corporations agree to initiate a sector-wide challenge to protect and improve fresh water resources for long-term sustainability.