Today is World Water Day, a day when people, places, and organizations around the globe come together to recognize the challenges we face in protecting and preserving this most important of natural resources. Water scarcity, resiliency, and community stakeholder engagement—these are but a few of the challenges, and opportunities, wherein business, government, not for profits and communities need to work together to ensure effective water stewardship and to improve the quality of life in the face of natural disasters, pollution, and increasing demands on water sources.

As part of these important proceedings, the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) is pleased to participate in a landmark event; today, the Obama Administration hosted its first ever White House Water Summit to promote the national importance of water, and to highlight new commitments and announcements that the Administration and other organizations have made towards water stewardship. BIER is being recognized by the White House for our work towards water conservation with a focus on increased water sustainability. In particular, BIER has been recognized for the following commitments:

The Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) will this year launch a “Project Cost Curve Database” that will collect information on projects related to energy and water conservation at BIER’s 20 global beverage-company members and their 1,800 facilities. BIER members and facilities will be able to use this information to inform the development of their own resource-conservation projects.

In addition, BIER is launching “Future Scenarios 2025”, an integrated effort to explore how access to water and other resources is likely to change over the next decade, and to introduce business leaders and other stakeholders in the beverage industry to practices that could increase water sustainability.

These commitments continue to illustrate the leadership towards a sustainable water future that BIER has exhibited in the Beverage Industry since its establishment. “We are honored to have our commitments recognized by the White House Water Summit on World Water Day,” says BIER Director, Tod Christenson. “Promoting the sustainable use and protection of water is a business imperative upon which BIER is founded, and, given its importance as an essential ingredient in beverage industry products and as a primary source for many of their production processes, water has always been a top priority in the Beverage Industry. We are pleased to see the Administration and other organizations give their attention to this vital resource.”

BIER members have worked vigorously over the past 10 years to drive resource conservation and use efficiency within their own operations and learning how they can reduce impacts across the value chain. BIER has had great success in accelerating learning through the sharing of technical best practices, informing and developing practice standards, and benchmarking our efforts. As we move forward to further secure our place as leaders, we will continue to focus on both present-day challenges and solutions as well as look over the horizon to anticipate future scenarios. “Unlocking the potential for future reductions” in resource consumption and impacts along our value chain is a theme we will carry into our 10th year as our members face increasing expectations to continue to do more, while at the same time deliver meaningful business value.