Pondering efficiency & resilience in the face of COVID-19 on #WorldWaterDay

I hadn't planned on penning a blog on World Water Day this year - there are usually a zillion of good ones already planned to consume (and this year had a bunch of great ones too!). But as we've all trolled through our social media feeds in the past couple of weeks, watching the growing rise of COVID-19, and giving thought to the systemic impacts it will have on our planet - economically, socially, and even environmentally, I saw a quote that struck a chord. It went something like this: "We live on a planet that is super efficient, but really, really poor at resilience." While the article in question (sorry, can't remember the source), was referring to the "just in-time" economic model of supply chains that tend to break, the issue smacked me when it comes to freshwater and the environment.

Issues of efficiency and resilience are core to freshwater, so it got me thinking. And here I am, squeezing in a blog in the final hours of World Water Day 2020.

Water use, globally, is mostly agriculture and agricultural production is becoming more and more efficient. But are our water systems becoming increasingly, and proportionally, LESS resilient, the more we grow our efficiency. In nature, the most efficient systems tend to consume at unsustainable rates - think viruses, bacteria, various weeds, and other creatures that tend to operate in boom-bust cycles. The most resilient systems are, in fact, highly INEFFICIENT. Resiliency, to some extent, requires redundancy. Duplication - i.e., inefficiency - allows a system to rebound quickly when a significant disruption occurs.

With water efficiency targets being the "norm" of most corporate water targets, its got me thinking: where are our water resilience targets and what do they look like. Everyone can agree that getting more "crop per drop" generally makes sense, but in times when water runs out, having a diversity to operations - an ability to shift from one form of production to another, may be a critical competitive advantage.

This week, like many of you, we've started reading about companies who are retooling to help in the Coronavirus pandemic fight. Here in my hometown, one of the local microbreweries is adapting its production lines to ramp up production of hand sanitizer. That sort of flexibility and ability to serve PURPOSE, in a time of disruption and need, not only helps to build brand equity (communities have been hugely supportive of their wilingness to help out), but also diversifies revenues in a period where beer sales are suffering from growler fill ups.

Freshwater challenges offer similar crises and opportunities. We need resilient businesses to face the fact that the climate of tomorrow looks to be increasingly variable. Come later this summer, our team will be launching a new Scenarios section for the Water Risk Filter. As we do so, I'm going to be thinking through a lot more when it comes to resilience as it relates to water stewardship. There are opportunities that come through resilience, and while the current pandemic is both scary and challenging, we must also learn from the situation.

Food for thought. Happy #WorldWaterDay.