Sustainable Agriculture Portal launched by the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate
Olam has sponsored the creation of a new portal within the Water Action Hub, an interactive, online platform created by the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate.
The new Sustainable Agriculture Portal identifies ‘action areas’ and will help organisations identify opportunities for collaboration and for supporting on-going basin-level projects related to on-farm water efficiency practices, better effluent management measures, groundwater and other agricultural topics.
Also launched in celebration of World Water Day on 22 March is a parallel portal for the Apparel industry. The theme for World Water Day 2015 is ‘Water and Sustainable Development’, and these portals recognise the role of the private sector and will help drive action for water security, which in turn is vital for food security, health and economic development.
Chris Brown, Olam’s General Manager for Environmental Sustainability said “Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water withdrawals. However the actual amount of water consumed in agriculture is typically less than 50% of the water withdrawn due to conveyance losses and on-farm inefficiencies. The inefficient use of water has to be addressed. We will use the Sustainable Agriculture Portal to share our successes, learn about the best practices of others and identify opportunities for collaborations which could add value for both our business and the watersheds we operate in.”
Talking about the newly launched portals, Deputy Director of the UN Global Compact and Head of the CEO Water Mandate, Gavin Power, said: “Achieving the forthcoming ‘post-2015’ Sustainable Development Agenda and corollary Sustainable Development Goals will require cooperation and collaboration across multiple industry sectors, Government and civil society.
“The Sustainable Agriculture and Apparel Portals of the Water Action Hub will be valuable tools for companies and others to use in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals following the post-2015 SDG design process.” said Jason Morrison, Technical Director of the CEO Water Mandate and Program Director of the Pacific Institute’s Corporate Sustainability Program.
Other sponsors of the Sustainable Agriculture Portal are SAB Miller, Grupo Nutresa and Anheuser-Busch InBev.
