Best content in EC Environmental Policy

Here are five factors driving the urgent need for better global water efficiency.
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1. Population trends translate into bursting demand
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The United Nations figures that 1.2 billion people (about one-fifth of the world's population) are challenged by water scarcity
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The bottom line is that water availability will be a major investment consideration in business expansion plans around the world.
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Just one example from the United States: In Chandler, Ariz., Intel has negotiated a unique relationship with the city to clean and return water tainted by its wafer manufacturing operation back to the local aquifers. Chandler owns the technology to do this, but Intel has helped make that investment possible. Both sides benefit
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2. Sanitation, irrigation needs transform wastewater treatment
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most wastewater is still wasted: in high-income countries, the treatment rate is 70 percent, but it falls to just 28 percent for lower-middle-income nations and 8 percent in low-income economies.
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3. Utility costs are rising quickly
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4. Distribution networks are aging rapidly
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Overall, the World Bank estimates the annual global value of water lost by utilities at $14 billion. The average U.S. utility pours up to 30 percent down the drain through leaks or un-billed usage.
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5. Data centers guzzle more water
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Exclusive: Inside McDonald's quest for sustainable beef | GreenBiz.com - 0 views

www.greenbiz.com/...donalds-quest-sustainable-beef sustainable beef food other company news McDonald's McDonald hamburger cheeseburger

shared by Brett Rohring on 07 Jan 14 - No Cached

Today, McDonald’s announces that it will begin purchasing verified sustainable beef in 2016, the first step on a quest to purchase sustainable beef for all of its burgers worldwide.
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The land management initiative led the company to commit to source-only palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil by 2015. All of its fish worldwide come from fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. McDonald’s requires its suppliers to source 100 percent Rainforest Alliance certified coffee for its espresso in the United States, for all of its coffee in Australia and New Zealand and all of it in Europe except for decaf.
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Langert says McDonald’s isn’t yet ready to commit to a specific quantity it would purchase in 2016, or when it might achieve its “aspirational goal” of buying 100 percent of its beef from “verified sustainable sources.” (The company only will say, “We will focus on increasing the annual amount each year.”) Realistically, it could take a decade or more to achieve the 100-percent goal.
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The company's Sustainable Land Management Commitment, unveiled in 2011, requires suppliers to gradually source food and materials from sustainably managed land, although there are no specific timelines, and it is initially focusing on beef, poultry, fish, coffee, palm oil and packaging. Notably missing for now are pork, potatoes and other produce.
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It involves engaging the global beef industry, from ranchers and feedlots to restaurants and supermarkets, as well as environmental groups, academics and the McDonald’s senior executive team.
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“It’s a small part risk management and a large part about growing our business by making a positive business for society.”
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“We aspire to source all of our food and packaging from sustainable sources, verified sources for sustainability on the way they treat animals, on the way they treat people, as well as the planet.”
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Beef also represents about 28 percent of the company’s carbon footprint — nearly as much as the operation of its 34,500 restaurants worldwide.
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