In 2007, a collaborative partnership between the UN Global Compact, the Swedish government and group of businesses and their leaders established the CEO Water Mandate that addressed water scarcity and sanitation issues. The mission of the initiative "represents both a call to action and an actionable framework for companies around the world to advance toward water sustainability in their operations and supply chains" (PacificInstitute.org). Some provisions of the mandate include direct operations, supply chain and watershed management, public policy, tranparency, community involvement/engagement and collective action. This partnership between the UN, in accordance with the Millenium Development Goals, and this group of buisness leaders is a step in the right direction to addressing how to reduce pollution and manage water scarcity. These buisnesses are not large multi-national corporations but they present an exemplary position on environmental management and sustainability.
In the text of the CEO Water Mandate, the buisness leaders recognize how their companies have direct impact in the polluting of water throughout the globe and hold accountability when addressing how to reduce these pollutants as well as try to prevent it from reoccurring. This mandate has been endorsed by 50 companies so far, all of which seek "responsible engagement with water policy" (pacificinstitute.org) that affect surrounding ecosytems and communities in a positive way.
Hopefully this trend among business leaders and companies will expand to corporations and large businesses to ensure that environmental sustainability can be attainable!
This Website describes the mandate in more detail and provides other intitiatives for environmental sustainability:
http://www.pacinst.org/topics/globalization_and_environment/ceo_water_mandate/index.htm
----Sophie Gardner
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