Around the world, there are increasing struggles on water security that poses complicated challenges to communities, governments and industries. Inadequacy of holistic approach, awareness and emphasis is threatening vulnerable populations, heightening political tensions and exacerbating environmental degradation. Traditionally, ensuring sufficient and quality supply of water is a state responsibility. But in the recent decades, involvement of business has grown in the interest of achieving more efficient and sustainable water resource and management.
Progress has been limited, however, and overall too slow.
Essential Element of Life
Throughout the history, water has been intertwined with humankind. As an instrument of progress, it plays
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It is not social responsibility, philanthropy or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. (Porter and Kramer. 2011)
The interdependence of business and society with each other is the wellspring of shared values. It recognizes societal needs, not only conventional economic needs as the forces that define markets, and that any social predicaments can create internal costs for firms. The concept of shared values resets the boundaries of capitalism. By connecting corporate success with societal improvement, it opens up many ways to serve new needs, gain efficiency, create differentiation and expand markets.
Shared values offer a united and effective response to many global challenges. In tackling water security, how can companies create effective shared values that will ultimately build a sustainable competitive edge and will bring business and society together anew?
Creating Shared
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Responsible water utilization, enabled by improving technology and habits will permeate all parts of the value chain and will definitely spread to employees, partners and channels.
Enabling Local Cluster Development
A business cannot expect to function in isolation. The achievement of every company is affected by the supporting companies, infrastructures, institutions and policies in its area of operation. Being disconnected to the community presents constraints on efficiency and productivity.
Firms create shared value by building clusters to improve productivity while addressing gaps or failures in the framework conditions surrounding the cluster. When a firm builds clusters in its key locations, it also amplifies the connection between its success and the progress of community. (Porter and Kramer.
Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water, presents in chapter ten, “The Fate of Water”, the importance of recognizing the value of water in order to solve water problems all over the world. Fishman uses Senator Arlen Specter’s town hall speech and an app called “Water Your Body” to point out that the real problems with water are water illiteracy and water mythology. He adds that water problems will be solved when people understand the beauty and qualities of water. In continuance, water has a personality and the presence of it can change moods and help people feel better. For instance, the WET company helps people see the beauty of water through magnificent water fountains.
In Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water, Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman shed light on the water crisis that is affecting billions of people across the world, an issue that has been far too common for far too long. “Water scarcity, already a crisis in much of the world, is a coming reality in the United States” (Snitow and Kaufman, pg. 2). Recently studies have shown that this crisis has spread to America at the hands of our government and big corporations, thus becoming a topic worth arguing. Water is not only a necessity for life, but a gift from god and a human
(http://carleton.ca/parldiplo/2014/water-stress-protecting-communities-nation-world/) Water is a right, not a good to sell. People tend to forget that. "Nations with abundant water seek to protect it. And as the strain on water resources increases in the coming years and decades, that sentiment is unlikely to change."
Organisational values can be described as a “belief that a specific mode of conduct is preferable to an opposite or contrary mode of conduct” (Rokeach, 1973). Some organisations describe them as their ‘guiding beacons’ whilst others describe them as part of their philosophy. As Diageo explains ‘Our values are not just words on a page – they are in our DNA. They underpin everything we do and are reflected in the day-to-day behaviour of the company.’ –
Modern day businesses have to be socially responsible; actions are taken to satisfy customers who might have a cause that they care deeply. Social responsibility occurs when a person or a company acts in an ethical and sensitive way towards important social issues of the day such as economic, environmental, and cultural concerns. Many businesses have a section of their website or business literature dedicated to social responsibility. Companies proudly detail the steps they are taking to address concerns that people have with the environment and economic issues. Having companies act in a socially responsible way is necessary because their actions have a tremendous positive impact on society.
The text allows for the reader to understand what the water crisis is, and how it is impacting our daily lives. The text also gives the reader multiple different examples of water control in the United States. But, because of all the corporate greed, corporations are ruining our natural resource of water by creating it into a commodity and selling it. This book gives great insight on how corrupt the government can be when they want to make a cheap buck. Again, “Water is a necessity of life that touches everyone in their own homes” (Snitow and Kaufman, 1) water is a right to all humans, not a commodity for business
It is the firm’s obligation to evaluate in its decision-making processes the effects of its decisions on the external social system in a manner that will accomplish social benefits along with the traditional economic gains, which the firm seeks. It means that social responsibility begins where the law ends. A firm is not being socially responsible if it merely complies with the minimum requirements of the law, because this is what any good citizen would do.” A firm will not survive without the support of both the stakeholders and shareholders, thus the CSR proposes the indication which states that a firm can never exist In a vacuum (Khalidah et. al.).
Stop Taking Clean Water for Granted Can you stop for a moment and think what would happen if we didn’t have water; clean water? It seems impossible, as we use water to drink, cook, clean, grow things, and for everything else in life. Unfortunately, because of the easy access to one of the most plentiful, and most valuable resources in the world, some people take water for granted. In contrast, other poor people live in places where the only easy way to get water is from a dirty irrigation ditch. Or their only source of water is backyard faucet shared by several homes.
Businesses have been playing a crucial role in people’s lives. No matter what they go or what the occupations they are; people are drawn to get involved in businesses. However, behind the scenes of the business thriving, the environment is deteriorated each day. Many development schemes are come up with the plan related with the depletion of the environment (Shah, 2002). Because of people and environmental damages, attentions were drawn to corporations for ensuring their sustainabilities.
Being socially responsible is the idea that businesses should balance profit-making activities with activities that balance benefit society; it involves developing businesses with a positive relationship to the society which they operate. Social responsibility is an ethical theory, in which individuals are accountable for fulfilling their civic duty but the actions of an individual must benefit the whole of society. Social and civic responsibility should be an automatic thing that should come to people’s minds when trying to improve society. The main concept of social responsibility is that every individual, has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems.
Davis (as cited by Khalidah, Zulkufly, & Lau, 2014) defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as “… the firm’s consideration of, and response to, issues beyond the narrow economic, technical, and legal requirements of the firm. It is the firm’s obligation to evaluate in its decision-making processes the effects of its decisions on the external social system in a manner that will accomplish social benefits along with the traditional economic gains, which the firm seeks. It means that social responsibility begins where the law ends. A firm is not being socially responsible if it merely complies with the minimum requirements of the law, because this is what any good citizen would do.” A firm will not survive without the support of both the stakeholders and shareholders, thus the CSR proposes the indication which stats that a firm can never exist In a vacuum (Khalidah et.
Therefore, there is a great deal of overlap between those who engage in philanthropic model for reputational reasons and those who follow the economic view of business' social
In the mid-1980s, Professor Michael Porter developed a framework to assess the competitiveness of regions, states and nations. This framework called “the Diamond model”. The diamond is a model for classifying multiple dimensions of micro-economic competitiveness in nations, states, or other locations, and be aware of how they interact. The Diamond model involves four elements which are: factor condition, demand condition, related, supporting industries, and strategy, structure and rivalry of the firm. The elements in the diamond that are barriers to productivity, can improve competitiveness.
INTRODUCTION Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earth 's streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. Water plays an important role in the world economy. Approximately 70% of the freshwater used by humans goes to agriculture. Fishing in salt and fresh water bodies is a major source of food for many parts of the world.
Water provides the Earth with the capacity of supporting life. Importance of water in humans In humans, water acts both as a solvent and a delivery mechanism, it dissolves essential vitamins and nutrients from food and delivers them to cells. Our bodies