Water Wednesday: PepsiCo grant supports clean water in rural China
Contributor's Note: This is the first installment in what will be an ongoing column in water sustainability, consumption and management issues. The rationale is simple: water is a more urgent priority for corporate social responsibility programs and becoming more so every day.
PepsiCo Foundation serves up $5 million for China clean water efforts
Continuing its string of corporate and philanthropic efforts focused on water consumption and conservation, the PepsiCo Foundation is putting $5 million toward a water conservation and development program administered by Give2Asia.
The U.S.-based non-profit organization is focused on providing safe water access for 500,000 people in central and western China by 2015. The money will be put toward the company's ongoing support for the Water Cellars for Mothers projects being run by the China Women's Development Foundation. Overall, PepsiCo has pledged to provide safe access to up to 3 million people in developing countries by the end of 2015.
Noted Zhen Yan, vice chairman of CWDF:
"Ever since its entry into China, PepsiCO has always put equal emphases upon strategic business growth and corporate social responsibility (CSR) fulfillment. The cooperation between ACWF and PepsiCo is now turning a new chapter with this further donation to Water Cellars for Mothers project."
3 water start-ups poised to make a difference
A new report by Lux Research suggests a number of up-and-coming technology companies that are poised to make a difference in the water treatment sector. The report is called "Water Chemicals and Competitors: The Long, Long March of the 'Chemical-Free Revolution."
Three companies rate particular mention by Lux Research. They are:
- Halosource: A company that has combined a bromine disinfectant with a filter approach to help shrink complex water treatments systems.
- SCFI: A start-up that is working on methods of oxidation and metals/phosphates retrieval.
- Neosens: Maker of sensors that can detect signs of fouling.
Notes Brent Giles, the report's lead author:
"Opportunities await the new wave of reduced- and non-chemical water treatments, but those opportunities are distributed unevenly across application markets. New approaches for treating municipal water, for example, won't budget conventional chemical-based methods. But in the old and gas industry, non-chemical treatments could move very fast because their relatively small footprint enables produced water to be treated at the drill site and reused."
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