Molson Coors Brewing Company and British supermarket ASDA have joined with UK-based group Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) to introduce a program to help farmers manage water resources more sustainably.
The Simply Sustainable Water program outlines six steps based on LEAF’s Integrated Farm Management approach, covering ways to save water, protect water sources, soil management, drainage and monitoring. It also includes useful checklists and a simple scoring system to enable farmers to understand how well they are managing their water and identify areas for improvement.
“Delivering sustainable food and farming is at the heart of what LEAF does and managing water wisely is an essential part of this,” said Caroline Drummond MBE, Chief Executive of LEAF. “Increasingly, farmers will need to adapt to the huge variation and unpredictability of rainfall. As part of our Integrated Farm Management (IFM) approach, we encourage all farmers to put effective, long-term risk-management strategies into practice to protect this precious resource.”
Martin Coyle, Customer Director at Molson Coors, explained the company’s interest in the the initiative: “Through our Growers Group, which provides us with 30,000 tonnes of British barley a year, we know just how important water management is to protect yield and quality of this important ingredient. As weather patterns change, and extremes of excess or drought become more frequent, farmers need simple actions that can be put in place to help manage their water systems.”
Water conservation is becoming a higher priority in corporate sustainability efforts. Fashion brand H&M has partnered with World Wildlife Foundation to perform an evaluation of H&M's efforts and challenges in connection with water conservation; the two organizations are working together to implement a comprehensive global water strategy, which includes educating employees, suppliers and customers.
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Bart King is the founder and principal at New Growth Communications. He specializes in helping sustainability leaders develop thought leadership content and strategy
Published Feb 22, 2013 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET