Clean Water and Sanitation

Participants of this event ran, walked or volunteered to assist during a 5K while carrying buckets of water to symbolize the distance that people around the world must travel to access water.

Many water leaders face a conundrum – they know massive system investments are needed, but have a steep hill to climb to gain necessary approvals and rate recovery for such investments. Stand-alone, multimillion dollar technology programs often take a back seat to repairing and replacing aging distribution system assets.

Chelsea Yates, an ambitious 11-year-old, has jump-started a movement to remind people that littering around public storm drains negatively effects the environment -- namely, marine life -- by posting notices on roadside storm drains in Brunswick, Georgia.

Black & Veatch, a market leader in dams, water storage and conveyance, is working to ensure sustainable water supply in Colorado by assigning two senior practice leaders to help meet client needs. Greg Zamensky and Chris Mueller will deliver Black & Veatch's water supply, dam-related storage and transmission systems services along the Front Range.

the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Natural Capital Coalition launched the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit, a brand new resource to help companies implement the Natural Capital Protocol - the first-ever standardized framework for measuring business impacts and dependencies on nature. The Protocol and Toolkit will help businesses address natural capital depletion by improving understanding, measurement and decision-making.

Among the most notable findings from this year’s Strategic Directions: Water Industry Report is the velocity of planning throughout the industry for implementing more advanced operational technologies, such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and enterprise asset management. More than 30 percent of utilities have indicated plans to implement these technologies, indicating the industry’s evolution and response to perennial issues of tightening budgets, rising costs and providing enhanced customer service.

This year’s Strategic Directions: Water Industry Report survey shows that while early adopters are making progress with implementing an “Integrated Planning Approach,” opportunity exists to implement this approach on a larger scale, across the board.

Caterpillar is working actively with stakeholders to find collaborative and innovative solutions to restoring our planet’s natural resources. One of these collaborations, a summit of experts and leaders in engineering, construction, finance and environmentalism, resulted in a white paper on natural infrastructure restoration and ways to catalyze its development and expansion.

In 2016, Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services, helped customers save 161 billion gallons of water at more than one million locations around the world. These savings, equivalent to the annual drinking water needs of more than 558 million people, are highlighted in the company’s 2016 Corporate Sustainability Report, available at www.ecolab.com.