Every year, we celebrate Earth Day to recognize the value of protecting this planet we all call home—including the water that enables life on it. This year, we celebrate a whole week to uncover ways that each of us can invest in our planet.
I wanted to share two ways DuPont is doing so—by investing in innovating technologies that address the world’s hardest water problems and by investing in connecting people to the safe water enabled by those technologies.
We are investing our Research & Development, as well as the capacity of our operations, to contribute toward what we call a Water-Optimized World. A world where each of us has daily access to safe, affordable water and sanitation. A world where industry has enough water to make the products, food, services and energy on which we rely. And a world where we optimize the circular nature of water in a sustainable, equitable way (in both industrial and municipal settings).
We don’t think it’s unrealistic. We are hopeful because we’ve seen how our customers in 112 countries are using a variety of levers to optimize and secure water supplies—including our products which purify more than 50 million gallons of water a minute.
Our solutions are helping industries operate more efficiently and sustainably—like making Carlsberg eliminate wastewater to become one of the world’s most water-efficient breweries. Or helping Clearway Energy and the City of San Francisco save 30 million gallons of drinking water a year by repurposing groundwater flooding a subway station for the creation of steam (which just won a global Sustainability Award—the Edie). Or helping a textile plant in India reuse water to stay operational—while also reaping the benefits of recovering valuable raw materials like salts and dyes.
We also help communities prepare for, or react to, water scarcity. From treating wastewater for reuse to making desalination more affordable and energy efficient for communities with little to no freshwater. And we provide advanced membranes and ion exchange resins to help municipalities make drinking water safer and more abundant to homes and communities.
Unfortunately, not every human has access to the safe water produced by municipalities using technologies like those made by DuPont.
Of the 800 million people who live without access to water in their homes, approximately 500 million live within reach of a local utility water infrastructure. Feet away from the pipes (not miles). Feet away from running water in their homes. Or a toilet. And feet away from all of the opportunities that access unlocks. And what stands in their way? Usually about $358. And access to affordable financing to invest in water access and their family’s future.
Fortunately, groups like Water.org and WaterEquity know how to close that gap—having empowered more than 52 million people with access to safe water or sanitation through affordable financing—with half of that impact in only the last three years.
Which brings me to the second part of how we are investing in water access—aligned to DuPont’s 2030 Sustainability Goals.
In March, DuPont joined a collective water investment to increase access to water and sanitation for 5 million people in some of the most at-risk parts of the world.
Demonstrating the power of collective corporate investments, five Water Resilience Coaition (WRC) member companies – Starbucks, Ecolab, Gap Inc., Reckitt and DuPont – came together alongside the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, to invest nearly $140 million in the WaterEquity’s Global Access Fund IV with the goal of reaching 5 million people with access to water, sanitation and hygiene.
Those are just two examples of how DuPont is investing in our planet—and our upcoming Sustainability Report will share so many more examples across the Corporation and our operations.
Let’s all keep finding ways that our products, people, plants and partnerships can better this beautiful planet. And let’s celebrate it—and invest in it—every day of the year.