The group Oxfam has published an online scorecard assessing the agricultural sourcing of the world’s biggest food and beverage companies, rating them on factors that include water resource management, climate awareness, and transparency.

Using publicly available information, the “Behind the (more…)

The UK-based Carbon Trust has introduced what it calls the first global standard on water management and reduction in hopes of encouraging more sustainable water use by businesses.

The new standard, created by members of the group along with four early-adopting companies, including (more…)

When most people think of water issues, the first thing that comes to mind is falling reservoirs and water rationing at the tap. While this is a very significant impact, our business sustainability consulting is reminded that water stretches much further and deep in to the heart of business. The reality is that water is linked to every facet of life on our planet and directly interacts (more…)

It’s arguably crucial for schools and colleges to do all they can to encourage future green builders; this means educating students about how to use sustainable technologies and alternative energy sources, while also conducting practical research. What, then, are schools currently focusing on, and what kinds of subjects are available? Moreover, what enterprise (more…)

“There is a an almost uncanny fit between India’s needs in the urban water arena, and what Israeli companies are able to offer,” so says Abraham Tenne, VP Desalination at Israel’s Water Authority following a visit last week to India. The visit was one implementation of an agreement signed this past February between the two nations aimed at fostering cooperation, with a (more…)

Israel has always suffered from water deficiency, a fact which has fueled research and development in the field, and brought about a national practice of education regarding water conservation and advanced water management methods. Today, water management has been transferred to water corporations and the water economy is now based on desalination. Water prices (more…)

“All politics is local.” This quote from the late US Congressman Tip O’Neill continues to frame political strategies today. It turns out his premise also applies to environmentalism. All sustainability is local, as a Massachusetts software company reveals in a new application that takes on the complicated task of quantifying the green efforts of corporations. (more…)

A delegation of water companies and reps from the Israeli Water Authority and the Standards Institute of Israel plans to travel to the Philippines – ahead of IWA’s Water Loss 2012 conference in Manila on February 26-29. The aim of their visit is to promote a better understanding of water loss reduction and smart water management – fields in which Israeli (more…)

Farmers and horticulturists are being advised to act now in order to survive the years of drought ahead.

A recent report commissioned by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) shows that higher temperatures and lower annual rainfall in summer is likely to reduce river flow (more…)

Safe drinking water from thin air? That’s the claim of San Luis Obispo, California, based Atmospheric Water Systems (AWS), which offers a product line of air-filtering water systems under the brand Dewpointe. Founded more than a year and a half ago by Co-owner Stephen Krauss, Dewpointe systems takes a different approach to creating safe drinking water. Rather than filtering the water that comes through a pipe, Dewpointe filters the moisture out of the air to create drinking water. There are no water pipes attached to the machine. The rectangular device simply plugs into a wall.

I caught up with Mr. Krauss on the second day of this year’s West Coast Green event held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California, and found out more about the Dewpointe system.

How does it work? Magic?

No, similar to a dehumidifier, Dewpointe pulls moisture out of the air; but unlike a dehumidifier, the goal of this device is to make that moisture drinkable. A series of filters take out 99.99% of the impurities and create clean drinking water. Impressive as this may sound, it also means that there must be moisture in the air for Dewpointe to operate effectively. Hence, all tropical or even moderate humidity environments in the United States such as coastal states, the south and mid-west work well. In desert environments or low moisture areas such as the south-western US, the Dewpointe will struggle.

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