The weather seems to be recurring theme of this blog. The team back in Geneva is suffering from extreme warm weather and are jealous of my air-conditioned environment in Stockholm.
Meeting people from different backgrounds is one of the great aspects of the Water Week. I met, for example, Rolf Stahlhoven (www.waterisright.org), co-lead of the double platinum band Söhne Mannheims, creator of the song Water is life, water is right and an UN Habitat water ambassador. He will tour the world next year with an all star band to advocate the right to water. Amazing reach he has and a life changing tale to tell….. I am looking forward to meeting him again.
It has been a busy day co-hosting two seminars, and the launch of our customized Global Water Tools.
Water in the Green Economy was the topic of the seminar co hosted with IUCN, TNC, Government of Korea and World Water Council. Gerard Bos from Holcim provided the business perspective. Ed Pinero from Veolia did an amazing job in summarizing the outcome of the table discussions on the targets for this WWF6 topic. I did leave with the feeling that working on a “solutions driven action plan” for targets which are not very well defined, does not make sense
We had a successful and streamlined afternoon seminar on Corporate Water Risk management, seeking solutions. Sylvain Lhote from Borealis provided us with his dream (simple, credible, operational and cost effective tools). The session was recorded and can be heard here http://tinyurl.com/3zky95b
Four corporate risk management tools were discussed from the developer (Ceres, Gemi, WRI and TNC) and the company (Pepsi, Coca Cola, Robeco, Conoco Philips and Diversay) perspective. A rich discussion followed, capably summarized by Jeff Erikson from SunstainAbility: we have to move from a gulping to a zipping world. I am convinced that we need to provide guidance for business on what tool to use for what purpose.
Our version 3.0 of the Global Water Tool and the Utilities and Oil and Gas versions are now live and downloadable from our website at http://tinyurl.com/3bprvoa. We added a biodiversity model to make the link to ecosystem services. I’m looking forward to following how these tools are being used to improve water management in these two sectors. I’d like to thank our partners who helped make this happen - - IPIECA, CI, CH2M HILL - - and all the others who joined us on Tuesday night to celebrate this milestone.
