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The automotive leader has a strong track record of water use reductions in its manufacturing operations and an aggressive goal to reduce water use even further – by 30 percent per vehicle by 2015. But many at Ford and a number of its stakeholders (including the company’s Ceres stakeholder advisory team) see growing water competition and scarcity as a potential economic game-changer – with big implications for the auto industry.

But water is critical to a number of manufacturing steps, including vehicle painting, where large volumes of water are traditionally used to rinse cars, ensuring that not a speck of dust ruins that perfect paint job. Water use also can be high in the automotive supply chain, particularly in making raw materials such as steel and aluminum. Ford also has identified that the energy sources used to power its vehicles (gasoline, electric power or biofuels) play an incredibly important role in determining the water footprint of its vehicles, because of the large amounts of water required for fuel production and power generation.

repairable electronic waste to be exempt from the international Basel Convention hazardous waste trade control procedures.

developing countries cannot control the junk electronic computers, faxes, printers and TVs flooding into their countries from North America and Europe

digital dump

This is an environmental issue, but it is a consumer-driven issue. Palm oil is being produce because consumers are purchasing items with palm oil in them

the El Paso Zoo and El Paso Zoological Society have developed a scanning app that allows people to make informed choices about the products they buy."

The El Paso Zoo launched a free national smartphone application Thursday that scans the product's bar code on the back of the item to help consumers identify which ones use palm oil.

Wilmar International yesterday signed a deal with consumer goods giant Unilever, which has promised that 100 percent of the palm oil used in its supply chain would by fully traceable by the end of 2014.

Wilmar controls 45 percent of the world's palm oil market

The company has already taken steps to preserve high conservation value forests and peatland on its own concessions, although campaigners have been quick to point out that deal covers just a sliver of the palm oil it trades.