We help companies throughout the product supply chain create environmentally-sustainable businesses. Our consulting services include: creating enterprise-level environmental sustainability visions, goals and strategies; re-engineering internal processes to reflect environmentally-sustainable best practices; and  maximizing the environmental sustainability of product supply chains through the design and implementation of supplier assessment mechanisms.

We work in a variety of industries. We are extremely sensitive to clients' budgets and their capacity for change.

Whether it's an energy, water, chemicals or solid waste issue, our team of professionals is ready to help your business. Please contact us to learn how we can help you.

In this edition of our Newsletter, the final one for 2011, our Feature Article discusses Sustainable Water Management, the art and science of understanding and mitigating the impacts that business has on water quality and availability. In our Ideas You Can Use Now section, we direct you to a free tool designed to measure a water footprint, conduct a sustainability assessment of water impacts and develop mitigation strategies around water. Our Events Calendar has  a list of events that  we think might be worth checking into. Happy reading!

P.S. Social media is now a key part of our communications strategy, as more of you rely on these tools to keep abreast of best practices, trends and resources. Keep up with us on:

The first step, data collection, usually involves the use of a water footprinting tool to measure direct and indirect (also called "embedded" or "virtual") water impacts associated with your business (or process or product). We discuss one such tool in the Ideas You Can Use Now section below. The good news is that you can tailor this inquiry to be as broad or narrow as you like (e.g., our operations only, our operations + upstream, one product only).

The second step, a sustainability assessment of the data, begins with understanding your goals around water. If you're aiming for cost containment, then your assessment will be geared toward analysis of water consumption costs. If you're focusing on environmental impacts, then you will want to understand where withdrawals come from and where discharges end up. Finally, if social considerations motivate your assessment, then you'll look at the data and try to discern impacts on people's lives from your water withdrawals and discharges. Remember, water is a basic human necessity and two-fifths of the world's population does not have access to potable water!

Finally, the data collection and subsequent assessment of that data don't "fix the problem" unless you take further steps in the form of a response strategy, such as: 

• establishing a preventative maintenance protocol on all water-consuming industrial processes 
• rethinking land use issues in a site selection process for a new DC.  

Whatever the choice, the goal is to reduce those water impacts you identified as meaningful in the first two steps of this process.

 

Sustainable water management is a journey, not an event. It requires vision, goal-setting, leadership, technical discipline and resilience ... just like all sustainability initiatives. The payoff is reduced costs/risks and more opportunity for your company and a better outcome for the communities and environment in which you operate. 

Ideas You Can Use Now!

In the Feature Article, we mentioned a tool that's available to help you measure the impacts of your business (or a particular process or product) on water quality and availability. That tool is the Water Footprint Network's "Water Footprint Assessment," which is  freely available at www.waterfootprint.org. There you'll find a wealth of information about water measurement and a link to download the WFN's "Water Footprint Assessment Manual." This document, although very technical at times, sets forth the protocol of measuring water impacts. Moreover, the Manual discusses the assessment and response strategy parts of the overall process in great detail. Although water footprinting isn't exactly the same as carbon footprinting, the structure of this protocol is very similar to those that are used in GHG accounting and reporting. This is a well-conceived environmental tool!

Even with the Water Footprint Assessment tool, getting a handle on water impacts is not easy. Water management is a complex discipline to master. We have the ability to help you understand and work with the tool, so call us today. 212-343-1006. And if you have questions or comments on what we have presented here, please contact us by telephone at 212-343-1006 or email us at info@kuhnassociatesllc.com.

Here are a few of the many interesting sustainability events happening in the coming months:

January 19 (Minneapolis), 24 (New York City) and 30 (San Francisco) - GreenBiz holds its 2012 GreenBiz Forum series in these three cities. GreenBiz always delivers interesting content about the current state of sustainability in a business context and these sessions are likely to be a good investment. Visit www.greenbiz.com for more information and to register.

February 28 (Portland, OR) - The University of Oregon holds a one-day workshop on "Water Sustainability from A to Z" at its Portland campus. According to U Oregon, "This workshop will present an overview of global and local water resource sustainability issues, touching on human impacts throughout the water cycle. Local water experts will discuss the latest stormwater management techniques, water conservation methods, and water-friendly landscape design." Click here to register.

March 7 - 8 (Atlantic City, NJ) - GLOBALCON 2012 brings together energy technology suppliers and customers in a trade show format. Here you can visit exhibitors with the latest solutions involving energy management, lighting efficiency and renewable energy sourcing. www.globalconevent.com.

Thanks for reading! Please contact us today to discuss anything you've read here, suggest a topic for a future edition or learn how we can help you build a more sustainable business.