Challenge
Water stewardship has emerged as a top priority for companies in recent years, especially those with agriculture-based supply chains. Our international food and beverage client was no exception to this trend. The company had long appreciated the vitality of this precious resource to its business operations and the health and well-being of its communities and was already considered a leader in water stewardship.
At the time of this engagement, our client had formalized a goal of measurably improving water availability and quality for the communities in which it operates. Additionally, the company had a robust action plan in place focused on internal efficiency, watershed improvement, supply chain resilience, and local access.
However, the food and beverage company wanted to go beyond evaluating water-related risks and build a distinct water narrative and strategy. Specifically, the team was looking for recommendations and improvement opportunities on the following:
Our client already had an ambitious, industry-leading target for water but wanted to explore distinctive messaging for their commitments that resonated with a range of stakeholders. The company wanted a narrative to help them rise above the noise and demonstrate quantitative impact.
The company needed help identifying market signals and trends and wanted to develop its internal capabilities to identify water-related priorities to inform its evolving water strategy and action plan.
Our client already had effective data collection systems and governance in place to identify and analyze water-related risks. However, the team needed a simple, clear way to communicate risks to leadership through improved forecasting, modeling, quantification, and visualization.
Building upon the success of its internal innovation platform, the multinational food and beverage company wanted to identify water tech solutions to accelerate progress toward its goals. The company needed stronger due diligence and selection processes and a more effective way to link potential solutions to its current innovation pipeline.
It was challenging for the sustainability team, which sat in the corporate function, to gain alignment between facilities and brands across the world. Our client needed a better way to deliver localized, real-time data across brands, facilities, and supply chains to support key performance indicators (KPIs).
Our client already had an ambitious, industry-leading target for water but wanted to explore distinctive messaging for their commitments that resonated with a range of stakeholders. The company wanted a narrative to help them rise above the noise and demonstrate quantitative impact.
The company needed help identifying market signals and trends and wanted to develop its internal capabilities to identify water-related priorities to inform its evolving water strategy and action plan.
Our client already had effective data collection systems and governance in place to identify and analyze water-related risks. However, the team needed a simple, clear way to communicate risks to leadership through improved forecasting, modeling, quantification, and visualization.
Building upon the success of its internal innovation platform, the multinational food and beverage company wanted to identify water tech solutions to accelerate progress toward its goals. The company needed stronger due diligence and selection processes and a more effective way to link potential solutions to its current innovation pipeline.
It was challenging for the sustainability team, which sat in the corporate function, to gain alignment between facilities and brands across the world. Our client needed a better way to deliver localized, real-time data across brands, facilities, and supply chains to support key performance indicators (KPIs).
The food and beverage company engaged our team to capitalize on these opportunities and create a leading global water strategy in service of its 2025 water stewardship goals.
Our approach
Over the course of 12 months, our team partnered with the food and beverage company to uncover opportunities across its 5 priority focus areas. Here’s a closer look at our approach:
1) Business unit and facility engagement. First, we engaged facilities, sustainability teams, and regional engineering departments (operational teams responsible for all facilities in a specific territory) to ascertain the level of alignment in how teams perceive, approach, and act on water-related risks. This helped us understand:
- How different teams got information on water risk and use
- If teams understood the link between water risk and business risk
- Varying approaches to water innovation (were teams taking sales calls or scanning the market)?
- How teams funded investments in watershed projects and tech solutions
2) Snapshot creation. Next, our team created a series of recommendations for sustainability teams and zone engineers across each of the 5 focus areas. For instance, in the impact measurement focus area, we recommended our client use satellite data and on-ground sensors to communicate the impact of investments in addressing water quality and quantity in real time. In the priorities and trends focus area, we recommended an approach to articulate both near-term (1-5 year) and long-term (10-20 year) water challenges and opportunities.
3) Narrative refinement. In addition to the recommendations outlined above, we developed a series of resources and tools to help our client build their own capacity across these focus areas. One resource was a suite of potential messaging themes our client could use to reframe how they talked about water. For instance, instead of discussing water as a risk, we helped the company think through ways to potentially position themselves as creating abundance with respect to water – in other words, shifting away from a narrative focusing solely on footprint reduction.
4) Water risk and opportunity visualization. Another tool we developed was a communication dashboard summarizing water-related risks and opportunities. This dashboard, which included relevant data from the facility to corporate level, provided a framework for regional engineers to operationalize risk-based water management and a platform for executives to make informed decisions.
5) Technology pipeline development. Finally, leveraging our global ecosystem of startups, investors, development banks, and Fortune 500 companies, we helped the food and beverage company build a healthy pipeline of water tech solutions to complement its existing innovation platform. The water tech companies we identified worked in areas like remote sensing, data and analytics, lead testing, water treatment, watershed management, and AI-driven operational optimization, all of which directly supported our client’s water goals.
Project outcomes
This project provided our multinational food and beverage client a clearer path to reaching its water goals, particularly as it relates to innovation and the communication of complex data streams for strategic decision-making.
Following this project, our client was empowered to:
- Develop a more compelling corporate narrative with respect to water
- Use key market trends and signals as an input for ongoing water strategy
- Collect their own data and deepen their understanding of water risks and interventions
- Consolidate large amounts of data into a visually dynamic platform for sound decision-making
- Facilitate greater connectivity and communication among business units
- Improve executive communication on water-related risks and opportunities
- Identify promising technology innovations to boost plant performance
Impact at a glance
50+ countries
Countries represented in stakeholder engagement
40+ high-risk sites
Number of facilities engaged in high-risk water sheds
100+ facilities
Number of plants accessing the communications dashboard
30B+ gallons
Water used for operational use covered by the dashboard
Using the outcomes of this project to amplify its existing global water strategy, our client has been able to maintain its position as a market leader and continues to pave the way on being part of the solution to water challenges across communities and value chains.
Need help developing your own water or nature-positive strategy? Our team has helped corporations of all sizes integrate water as a strategic asset, deliver meaningful impact to communities and ecosystems, and capitalize on water-related opportunities.
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