Speeches

 02/09/05
 Remarks at the Center for Strategic & International Studies & Sandia National
 Laboratory -- Global Water Futures Workshop
 Water Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility
 Washington, D.C.
 Jeff Seabright, Vice President, Environment & Water Resources

Good morning, and thank you very much indeed for inviting me to share some thoughts with you this morning.

Let me begin by acknowledging the pioneering leadership that CSIS has provided on the challenges of international development and global governance for over three decades now. I was privileged to have been a part of many CSIS efforts over the years with Dave Abshire, and my former colleague John Hamre. So it is a special honor to be here.

We're here today to talk about water.

It's a subject that is loaded with urgency, even emotion. Water robs life when it is scarce. And, as we witnessed with the terrible tsunami, it can rob life when it is abundant, too.

We're also here to talk about the need to act together as partners - government, business, academia, NGOs -- to address critical global water challenges.

I would like to share with you today how we at Coca-Cola are approaching water partnerships in the communities where we operate.

There are very few organizations in the world that are more global than The Coca-Cola Company. In fact, we operate in more countries than there are members of the United Nations.

And yet our business remains, at heart, a truly local one. We use the term multi-local. We are not "an American Company" with a presence in places like Beijing, Brunei, Bangalore, or Bucharest.

Rather, we operate in Beijing, Brunei, Bangalore and Bucharest very much as members of those local communities - as truly local partners.

We employ hundreds of thousands of people locally. We invest for the long term locally. We largely source & sell our products - and build our relationships - locally.

So when we speak of our commitment as active, responsible partners with markets, people and environments, this is what we're talking about. This local presence is how we do what we do… and we believe it's the only way we can make an enduring difference. We must have meaningful partnerships to create solutions that work locally…

...whether it is our work on HIV/AIDs in Africa...

...or micro-enterprise development for women in Vietnam...

...or schoolyard "roundabout" pumps in South Africa...

...or rainwater harvesting efforts in India...

This brings us back to water.

All living systems need water. People need it. The climate needs it. Plants and wildlife need it. We are all part of the same living system and we all need water.

Without a reliable water supply, we cannot improve human health, preserve natural ecosystems, or grow economies. It is a critical pre-requisite for most other development goals.

But in many parts of the world, water is in crisis.

As the "Seven Revolutions" analysis performed by CSIS found:

The most serious resource challenge in 2025, we believe, will be the scarcity of water. In a number of geographical areas, populations are growing as freshwater availability is declining. The effects of this widening imbalance include poor sanitation and public health, inadequate irrigation, and profound geopolitical implications.

Poor people suffer from this crisis disproportionately. Impoverished nations are the ones that suffer from water scarcity, pollution and lack of sanitation. The statistics are sobering: Over one billion people today have no access to safe drinking water. Approximately 2.6 billion do not have access to basic sanitation. That is nearly half of the world's inhabitants. The grim result is that every day 25,000 people on our planet die of preventable water-related disease. Nine thousand of them are children under the age of 5. That's happening every day.

How did this happen?

During the past century, the world's population has tripled. Do you know what has happened to water usage in that same period? It has increased six-fold.

This increased water consumption is due largely to two phenomena: More intensive farming methods, and also increased industrial activity.

Farming and industrial activity increase the demand for water dramatically. Both threaten the quality of water, too.

Freshwater is being contaminated due to run-off, silting, fertilizers, and industrial pollution. Dry lands are degrading due to desertification, dropping water tables and over-irrigation.

Moreover, water resources are not distributed uniformly across the globe; nor are they always located where the largest concentrations of people reside. Demand outstrips supply in a growing number of countries, and the quality of that supply is rapidly declining. As corroborated by the CSIS Seven Revolutions Analysis, by the year 2025, it is estimated that two-thirds of the world's population will live in water-stressed regions.

The Coca-Cola Company, of course, has a special interest in water. We are a hydration company. Every product we sell contains water. In fact, water, itself, is an important and growing product category. Without water, we have no business.

Today, our entire business is transforming the way it thinks about water. We are collaborating closely with our system bottling partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders to identify and address water challenges and opportunities in more than 1,000 operations across our system. And we are looking at water across the entire value chain - from watershed protection to water use efficiency in operations.

Clearly, our first priority is to conserve the water that we use. We have an obligation as responsible community partners to use water in our own operations as efficiently and responsibly as possible. We are working across our bottling system to set water efficiency goals and make improvements. "We count every drop and make every drop count", as one of our partners puts it.

And we've made good progress. In 2003 alone, we worked with our bottlers to improve water use efficiency system-wide by 7% -- that is, our volume grew by 4% and our use declined 3%. We've done that in a number of ways: By dedicating teams in our plants to water conservation; by employing new technologies; and by improving water use and reuse practices in all our manufacturing operations. And we will continue setting aggressive water efficiency goals for 2006 and beyond.

Beyond water use efficiency in our operations, we are also working with local governments, local NGOs, schools, and communities to establish community-based partnerships.

In every community where we operate, water is a critical natural resource and a community asset. And while water is a limited resource, it possesses the rare quality of being an infinitely renewable one. This is not a "zero sum" situation, in which more water for one group must mean less water for another.

That means that The Coca-Cola Company is able to refresh and hydrate consumers, while also supporting sustainable access to water within communities. Those two goals are not at odds with one another. Rather, they are complementary, and even mutually dependent.

It is in the long-term interest of our business to be good stewards of our most critical ingredient. Along with the communities where we operate, we have a shared interest in finding effective solutions to water management. And that is at the heart of our approach to partnerships. Let me briefly share some examples.

In India, we've installed rainwater harvesting systems in twenty of our plants and in eight communities. The collected water is used for plant functions, as well as for recharging aquifers. Today, much of the total water that we use in our operations is renewed and returned to groundwater systems. And we believe we can do better. As responsible partners we will continue to increase the amount of water we return to local groundwater systems. We'll do this by supporting rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation and other local initiatives, such as helping restore traditional water storage systems that local communities use.

In Africa, many of our bottling partners are in the process of improving wastewater treatment at their facilities. Rather than just building a plant that serves the Coca-Coca bottler alone, we're collaborating with the Africa Development Bank, with USAID, and with local community stakeholders, to explore ways that -- as partners -- we can extend the scope of the bottler's efforts to benefit the community, to effectively leverage the human and physical capacity of our system for shared benefits.

In Europe this year, Coca-Cola Bottlers and our operating Divisions in 17 countries adjacent to the Danube River have set aside funds to invest in river and watershed conservation efforts. Specific activities will likely build on existing relationships and initiatives such as "Danube Day" supported by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), UNDP and others. In addition to reducing water pollution and improving the protection of habitat supported by the Danube, the project activities would increase understanding at the local and global level of the role of watersheds in supporting local economies.

Globally, we are exploring another opportunity with USAID Missions and USAID global water team experts - through a Strategic Partnership with USAID's Global Development Alliance -- to develop a joint Community-Watershed Partnerships program. This proposed approach would leverage funds, expertise, and resources from USAID Missions and Coca-Cola operations throughout the world to identify and execute joint projects to meet our respective missions and create positive, lasting water benefits in our joint communities - from Mali to Bolivia.

And lastly, we and the World Wildlife Fund US (WWF-US) share a commitment to ensuring the continued abundance and health of freshwater resources worldwide. In essence, the success of each organization's core business depends upon identifying methods to manage freshwater resources and systems in a manner that is both ecologically sound and economically sustainable. With this in mind, WWF US and TCCC have come together to implement a three-year, plan aimed at expanding each organizations' base of awareness and action in this critical issue area. Key facets of this collaboration include:

Setting New Standards for Stewardship by completing the first-of-its kind global effort to delineate freshwater areas requiring enhanced stewardship and protection, and initiating cutting-edge research to determine future threats to freshwater supplies and habitats;

Protecting Vulnerable Ecosystems Worldwide by scaling up field-based freshwater conservation programs in areas of mutual interest to WWF US and TCCC, including the American Southeast; Chihuahuan Desert of US and Mexico; Southeast Asia's Mekong River Basin; East Africa's Zambezi Basin; and the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay;

Expanding Opportunities for Resource Stewardship by providing a conservation learning resource for water-intensive industries. This e-learning tutorial will also link to broader freshwater conservation issues, providing ideas and direction for working with communities to enhance local watershed activities that conserve critical wildlife habitat and protect freshwater systems.

These are but a few examples of water partnerships that we are working on today. We are not doing this work alone: we cannot. Our employees - our internal partners - is where it all starts, but we also fully depend on our growing set of partnerships with local, state, and national governments; with local and international non-government organizations; with scientific organizations; with international financial institutions; with foundations, and with international aid programs.

As a global corporate citizen, the responsibility that The Coca-Cola Company has is unique. Coca-Cola is produced in almost every country in the world. Over a billion servings of our beverages are consumed by people every day. We have a system that has been optimized to generate and distribute hydration every day and almost everywhere.

All over the world, we have deeply talented and passionate people who can be mobilized to address local water challenges. And, we have a brand that is universally recognized, and generates goodwill with people from many different places and walks of life.

We saw the power of this system in the terrible aftermath of the tsunamis that hit South and Southeast Asia. Our Company and our bottler partners were able to respond immediately. They shifted production lines to water. Well over a million bottles of water were produced and our distribution infrastructure was mobilized to transport clean drinking water and other emergency supplies to affected areas.

This local response was coupled with a significant corporate contribution for international and local relief efforts. And we dedicated some of those funds to water sanitation system rehabilitation and development - funds which were matched by the United Nations Foundation to make an even greater impact.

Immediate disaster relief is critical. But it is also critical that we invest now in longer-term solutions to water challenges in these affected areas. The awareness raised by the tsunami can be a catalyst for all of us to invest in rehabilitating, developing, and strengthening water and sanitation systems globally -- and in reaffirming and strengthening our commitments as responsible community partners.

In a book titled "How the Canyon Became Grand", the environmental historian Stephen Pyne makes a simple observation about water:

"Famed as a water planet, Earth has too much in some places, too little in others, and everywhere the crisis of matching water with people."

He's right. That's our challenge. Matching water with people.

Can we do it?

If we conserve and manage water properly, we can do it.

If we adopt new mindsets and employ new technology, we can do it.

If we have the will and the vision to make a difference, and if we pursue responsible business practices we can indeed help "match water with people."

But most of all, we need deep, productive, authentic, and undeniably local partnerships... partners who share in the urgency and act together on the vision.

Thank you.