IBM GIO
I had the privilege of being invited by IBM to represent SANBWA and the bottled water industry at their Global Innovation Outlook Deep Dive on Water and the Oceans that took place on 6 November 2008 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
The Global Innovation Outlook (GIO) is based on the idea that, in this era of borderless business, rapid technological development, and seamless communications, there is enormous potential for innovations that could benefit society globally. IBM believes that by focusing open, multi-disciplinary, global collaboration, the world’s most vexing problems can be confronted and its biggest opportunities revealed. So, through a series of open and candid brainstorming sessions called “deep dives”, IBM works together with thought leaders from business, academia, the public sector, NGOs, and other influential constituencies to identify and act upon opportunities for innovation at the intersection of society, business, and information technology.
IBM talks about water
This year’s deep dive, if you’ll pardon the pun, was into water. As we all know, all water on this planet is part of a closed system. We will never have more, we will never have less. Yet the path that water takes, the places it comes to rest, and the way it is used and consumed are all rapidly changing. Thus, understanding, anticipating, and planning around those changes in both fresh and ocean water systems is critical to the health and prosperity of the human race. With this in mind, the GIO explored ways in which businesses, governments, and individuals can be smarter about how we manage these finite supplies. The variables that influence freshwater and ocean systems are both natural and manmade. And there is ample opportunity to better understand and manage those variables to our collective benefit. Challenges like these demand innovation, and that innovation comes in many different forms - anything from technology to new economic models and forward-thinking policies.
During the GIO session, some tough questions were posed about the future of water and the oceans - including: What are the opportunities that will spur innovation around water management? What are the tradeoffs between water, food, and energy consumption? What role should the private sector play in ensuring sustainable water supplies?
Statistics to ponder
Some fascinating statistics were presented.
- Earth’s surface covered by water: 70%
- Total volume of water on earth in cubic kilometers: 1.3 billion
- Total freshwater on earth available for human use in cubic kilometers: 13 million
- Annual global freshwater demand by humanity in cubic kilometers: 3.3 thousand.
- 144 000 l of water required to make a ton of paper
- 168 l of water required to produce a mug of coffee
- 590 l of water required to produce 1 kg of potatoes
- 4 546 l of water required to produce a quart of milk
- 12 729 l of water required to produce a pair of jeans
- 172 748 l of water required to produced 1 ton of steel
- 454 600 l of water required to produce a car
- Global freshwater withdrawal for irrigation: 80%
- Water used for irrigation lost to evaporation: 60%
- Sea level rise by 2100: 65 – 130cm
- World’s population living in coastal areas that might sink as ocean levels rise: 10%
- World’s rivers that have been dammed or diverted: 60%
- Estimated economic value of global water sector: $425 billion.
Water on the global agenda
I was a member of a group focused on fresh water and hosted by Kees Donker, IBM Netherlands, and facilitated by Kelly Jones, IBM US. Other members of the group included representatives of the United Nations, the Central Mining institute, Deutsche Asset Management, the European Water Partnership, the Geneva Institute of Water, the International Water Association, the National Geographic Society, Swiss Fresh Water, and UNESCO – IHE.
Everyone in the group agreed that the world’s water challenges are complex and very diverse. So our recommendations were that data should indicate priorities and build value. Governments and politicians should be persuaded to invest in water quality and infrastructure.
People in all spheres should understand their role in water use. Government bureaucracy should not bar innovation towards sustainability. The water footprint should be built into corporate social responsibility policies. That last point highlighted the fact that there are currently no standards for measuring and defining a company’s water footprint. It was decided that we need a way of measuring success in societies that isn’t focused exclusively on GDP. Every company needs a second set of books reporting on its environmental performance. Companies may be more enthusiastic about tackling environmental issues when they realise that efficiencies save money anyway – and, in the majority of cases, no costly technological implementations are necessary to
achieve them.
Consumers can help put pressure on the corporate world by changing their own values and behaviour.
The to do list everyone should focus on looks like this:
- Keep water in the cycle i.e. re-use
- Grow and consume crops locally
- Know your water consumption
- Insist on water usage transparency for businesses - and build awareness
- Use information that is already available to enable smart farming in order to reduce pollution
- Integrate water footprints into criteria for maximum land usage, optimise water distribution, and manage watersheds managed. Include ‘virtual’ water in all these activities to balance local and global consumption
- Stick to commitments such as Millennium goals – and, where necessary, renew leadership
- Establish conflict resolution models
- Build corporate solidarity
- Establish boundaries for water rights
Action that we can take right now:
1. Impose a 2nd set of books for all company’s environmental performance
2. Move the concept of a water footprint towards an eco footprint
3. Get water on the global agenda with proper leadership – as has been done with the carbon footprint
4. Create policy / standards / incentives for efficient water use (ID local and regional hotspots)
5. Define basic human needs and classify vulnerable areas
6. Create an information management system to consolidate global issues, information, and risks
Taking the waters at Spa in Belgium
From Amsterdam, I traveled by train to Brussels where I met Patricia Fosselard from the European Federation for Bottled Water (EFBW). Patricia kindly arranged with José Bontemps, scientific advisor to Spadel, to show us around Spa and its bottling facilities.
Spa, of course, is where the water was first bottled and, if you like, is the place back to which all of us can trace the origins of our bottling businesses. Spadel bottles in excess of 600 million litres of water per annum (twice the size of our entire South African bottled water industry!). It has outgrown the railway line that flanks the massive factory. What really made an impression
on me were the lengths to which the company has gone to secure and protect its water heritage. The whole town is a living monument to the remarkable geological phenomenon that gave rise to the mineral springs whose purity and characteristic mineral content have long been regarded as miraculous.
Geologically, the Spa Region belongs to the Primary Period and is, therefore, extremely old. It is situated in the Ardennes Fagne (derived from a word in the Walloon dialect meaning ‘marshland situated in an elevated region’). At an altitude of 600 metres, the Fagne constitutes a genuine natural reservoir fed every year by rainfall and melting snow. The water, far removed from any pollution, filters slowly through the ground and reappears in Spa, 250 metres above sea level, in a multitude of gushing springs.
The unique virtues of the Spa waters are attributable to the unique geology of the Fagne itself and the natural production of carbonic acid. The high Ardennes plateaux are formed by angular fragments of rock, from 5 to 10 metres in thickness that are covered with peat and clay. Rain and melting snow permeating through this“natural filter” end up in the sub-soil consisting of pyretic
schists. The water oxidizes these pyrites, absorbing a little sulphuric acid - which attacks the carbonates and separates the carbonic acid and carbon dioxide. This releases very large quantities of acid and gas, allowing the water to break down rocks into their constituents and
then to absorb elements that are only slightly soluble, such as iron and manganese. The celebra ted Ardennes Pouhons, which emerge as sulfo-ferruginous and carbogaseous mineral springs, are the result. Recognised as a form of national wealth, the site has for many centuries been the object of a range of protective actions. Bottling was one of them.
Although the waters, with their reputed health benefits, have always served the local population, it was only by the end of the sixteenth century that the fame of Spa waters had spread through the whole of Europe. Even so, only the wealthy cure seekers could indulge themselves in a long journey to enjoy the benefits offered by the Pouhons. So, doctors came up with the idea of allowing the water to be taken water to the people. Initially, the water was carried on foot – sometimes as far as 250 kms - by “estafettes” employed by wealthy people.
The problem was, though, that the Spa waters contained iron and other metals that formed a brownish deposit at the bottom of the receptacle. The containers also very rapidly lost carbon dioxide. So the waters lost their characteristic properties before they reached the customer.
And that’s why the 16th century marks the point at which the importance of bottling and of careful corking was recognised. Those early bottles, however, were earthenware pitchers and very expensive. (In 1600, the bottle accounted for three quarters of the retail price and in 1789 still
accounte d for two thirds).
To prevent light hastening the process of precipitation, the bottles had to be of a dark colour, either greens or browns. Goat or pigskin was used to cover the stopper, to help prevent the CO² from escaping. And then, of course, it was necessary to travel faster than a walk. Even taking
such precautions, however, there was no way to guarantee getting the water to the customer in he condition in which it left the Spa if the customer lived more than 50 leagues away. Gradually, though, as greater care was taken in bottling and corking, the water could be kept for three weeks or more. This enabled longer journeys – and exports began to flourish. Water was exported to the Netherlands in 1572, France in 1583, Germany and Italy in 1585, England and Russia in 1600, pain in 1615, and the American colonies in 1700.
In around 1600, a bottle of Spa water might be worth 5 patards, whilst a large wheat loaf weighing 7 pounds was sold for 2 ¼ petards. A cow commonly changed hands at 800 patards and a pound of butter cost 5 patards. Retracing the steps of the world’s first bottlers, walking in the protected outlands and marshy highlands, tasting the iron rich water in the place where the wealthy had actually built their “small” castles to be able to take the waters over prolonged periods, keeping my feet away from the imprint where many others believed they had received fertility(!), admiring the lengths to which a company went to protect this heritage, I was put in mind of the many conversations that need to be had - to inform and educate regarding the protection of both our plight and pleasure in taking the water. The info on IBM was taken from their website and communications to us prior to the meeting. Info on Spa was taken from the book: The original pa water of Belgium by L.M. Crismer.
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