Water & Sustainability by Mediaplanet_USA

Water & SustainabilitySEPTEMBER 2022 | IMPACTINGOURFUTURE.COM AND FUTUREOFBUSINESSANDTECH.COM The actor and entrepreneurs want to spread the word: Water is a human right Gary White and Matt Damon What you need to know about treating your water and improving its quality 02 An Independent Supplement by Mediaplanet to USA Today A Mediaplanet Guide to The Water Crisis, Sustainable Business Practices, and Those Trying to Help Pure Strategies is working to yoursustainabilitybringintohome11

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Publisher Samantha Jahoda Business Developer Katie Konfino Managing Director Jordan Hernandez Director of Content and Production Joelle Hernandez Lead Editor Dustin Brennan Lead Designer Kayla Mendez Copy editor Kandlyn Collins Designer Julia Goldberg Cover photo credit Water.org . All photos are credited to Getty Images unless otherwise specified. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve USA Today.

Over 1,000 peer-reviewed articles have been pub lished on H2. This growing body of science shows that H2 regulates over 200 biomolecules, supports cell sig naling and metabolism, and healthy gene expression. It provides benefit in 170+ health conditions and disease models, positively affecting virtually every organ in the humanResearchbody. suggests the simplest, most effective way to increase H2 is to drink H2-rich water. H2 water can be produced using electrolysis, magnesium, or bubbling H2 gas into water. Alkaline water ionizers pro duce H2 water through electrolysis, the same method used to produce hydrogen gas for energy.

What if there was a simple, natural way to reduce pain and inflammation; boost your energy, cognitive function, exercise performance, and recovery; and neutralize harmful free radicals and support your body’s enzyme and antioxidant production? Scientists have discovered that water, rich in H2 or molecular hydrogen, has all these properties and more.

READ MORE AT IMPACTINGOURFUTURE.COM2

The ultra-healthy choice

Eric Yeggy, Director of Technical Affairs, Water Quality Association AlkaViva This article was paid for by AlkaViva

AlkaViva’s H2 Series ionizers with H2 Infusion Technology produce levels of H2 far greater than those found in the water from the healing springs or other ionizers. And, our UltraWater Filtration Technology is the only ionizer filter that tested in an Independent EPA certified lab against 249 contaminants and shown to reduce virtually all of them to 99.9%. Call (775) 324-2400 and mention this ad to get 20% off any UltraWater Filtration Solution.

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For those who would rather hire someone to take care of water quality issues, the Water Quality Association recom mends going through a certified water treatment professional. Certified professionals must complete nearly a year-long course of study, successfully pass a comprehensive exam on water quality and water treat ment, complete 20-30 hours of continuing education every three years, and abide by a strict code of business ethics. n

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thetic issue that reduces the effiency of your water heater and other appliances. A thirdparty certified water softener can protect your appliances and save you money on rising energyWhenbills.it comes to lead, any amount that is in drinking water is unsafe and harmful to your health. Because lead can come from the pipes leading to your home, or from pipes and fittings within your home, the best treat ment is a point-of-use device — at the faucet or dispenser — certified to treat drinking water for lead.

Water quality issues can be difficult to understand, but water treatment solutions don’t have to be. By focusing on easy treatment solutions and resources, you can help improve the water quality in your home or workplace.Hardness is a common household water quality aes

Health contaminants and how to treat them Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are health contaminants that are fre quently in the news. Health advisories issued by the Envi ronmental Protection Agency suggest that PFAS may be dan gerous even at concentrations so low that we wouldn’t be able to detect them using current test methods. Luckily, there are products available for the home and office that are certified to treat drinking water for PFAS.

Water toBeSolutionsTreatmentCanAccessibleEveryoneTheWaterQualityAssociationhastipsandtrickstohelpimprovetheoverallqualityofyourwater,whetherathomeorintheoffice.

Healthy Benefits Backed by Science ... in a Glass of Water?

While there are still challenges to be addressed, zero-emission vehicles work and tar geted investments in these markets will limit the consequences of climate change, improve lagging transportation development, and move the United States away from dependence on foreign resources and vulnerable fossil fuel sup ply chains. In many cases, zero-emission vehi cles in these markets are superior to the diesel and gasoline powered vehicles they replace.

PracticesSustainableStart From the Ground Up

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Does sustainability make good business sense?

The Center for Transportation and the Envi ronment (CTE) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1993 with the belief that advanced technol ogy and innovation can solve the world’s envi ronmental problems.

Eighty-five percent of Blue Dia mond member orchards are already using highly efficient micro-irrigation systems. Few other California crops have such a high rate of these systems.

As the impacts of climate change become more apparent, we need to be vigilant when it comes to motor zero-emission technology.

Absolutely. Particularly in the food and beverage space, I’ve watched consumer interest in the sustainability of food and

It has become cliched to say that we pursue sustainability because “it’s the right thing to do.” But sometimes cliches con veySustainabilitytruth. requires wholistic thinking about our impacts on society and the planet, and how to continuously improve. The alternative is more short-sighted and self-focused.

Dr. Dan Sonke Director DiamondSustainability,ofBlueGrowers

We talked to Blue Diamond Grower’s director of sustainability about how (and why) more businesses should pursue green initiatives.

Even in uncertain economic times, the wholistic thinking that a sustainability mindset brings to business is a strength. Teams begin to look for innovative ways to be more efficient, to reduce waste, to inspire customers and employees, and pursue resilient supply chains.

Daniel Raudebaugh, Executive Director, Center for Transportation and the Environment

In the United States, transportation is the larg est emitting economic sector, accounting for nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Our existing transportation infrastructure is pow ered almost entirely by pollutant-heavy fossil fuelWithinsystems.this sector, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles do a lot of the environment damage. These vehicles are larger and more robust than passenger vehicles, and use correspondingly larger, less fuel-efficient engines.

Why is it important for businesses to adopt more sustainable practices?

If fuel cell and battery electric technologies can work in these markets, they can work anywhere. And if we are truly committed to addressing climate change, we need to invest in all zero-emission transportation technology solutions we have at our disposal.

What is one thing others in your industry can focus on to make their businesses more sustainable?

Fighting Climate Change — Lessons Learned From the Front Lines

But we know we can do even better. Our sustainability pro gram connects growers with a wide array of best practices to use those systems even more efficiently, whether it is internet-connected weather stations to forecast when irri gation is not needed, or digital soil sensors, or even simple effi ciency checks that can tell when a system has something going wrong. The benefits from these practices go beyond the orchard to neighbors and surrounding communities. n

agriculture increase significantly over the two decades of my career. At Blue Diamond, we are invest ing in new avenues to reach con sumers with the messages about how we have invested in water, carbon, and biodiversity in our member’s orchards.

To learn more about how Blue Diamond is leading the way in sustainable almond growing, visit bluediamond.com/sustainability

Blue Diamond’s sustainability focus includes water, bees, and carbon. The company is com mitted to limiting water use and using high-efficiency irri gation, improving the health of bee and other pollinator

plants, providing clean water for pollinators, and protecting pollinators from pesticides. With over 40% of its growers participating, BDG has more growers enrolled in a sus tainability program than any other almond company in the world.Tohelp reduce an orchard’s carbon footprint, BDG encour ages farms to use whole-or chard recycling at the end of a tree’s life cycle. The practice involves chipping the tree into pieces and putting it back into the soil.

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The California almond indus try produces about 80% of the world’s almonds; its consis tently warm climate is one of the only in the world that can support the plant.

Now’s the time to debunk misconceptionthe that almonds water-wasters.are

2025. Sonke says over 85% of almond orchards currently use micro-irrigation systems, which is twice the efficient irrigation rate of other crops in California. Other sustainable technologies in use include soil and weather sensors.

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Kristen Castillo

Sustainability focus

While almonds grown in California do require a lot of water, that’s true of nearly all the crops grown in the region. According to Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) — a coop erative of 3,000 small-scale almond farmers in California — almonds are 1 of more than 400 commercial crops grown in the state. They’re grown on 20% of the state’s farmland but use just 13% of California agri culture water.

“We use about a third less water to grow a pound of almonds today than we did 20 years ago,” said Dr. Daniel Sonke, director of sustainabil ity for BDGBDG.is working with the Almond Board of Cal ifornia to reduce almond water use by another 20% by

How theHelpGrowingSustainablePracticesAlmondsandEnvironment

“We’re really investing resources to use our orchards to benefit not only ourselves but California, society, and the environment,” Sonke said. n

populations, and reducing car bonTwoemissions.yearsago, BDG started paying incentives to growers who participate in the Blue Diamond Orchard Steward ship Incentive Program. To qualify, growers must meet milestones in the California Almond Stewardship Platform (CASP), including finishing all nine sustainability mod ules and getting their orchard “Bee Friendly Farming Certi fied,” which requires planting the equivalent of 3% of their orchard land in flowering

An estimated 1 in 10 people lack immediate financing to access and maintain safe water systems, and 1 in 4 individuals can’t afford sanitation systems.

“To lessen the impact of shortages tomorrow, we need to expand access to water today,” Damon and White explained.

Increasing awareness and education is the big gest thing. If everybody learns more about it, sees what opportunities are out there, and then makes an informed decision, that’s really what the world needs — smart people doing their homework and making good decisions.

“Small donations make a big impact, just $5 can give someone access to a tap or toilet that will change their life,” Damon and White

economists esti mate an $18 billion market demand for funding water and sanitation services from these communities. By 2030, that amount is projected to reach $1 trillion, according to WaterEquity.

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How has the Inflation Reduction Act incentivized “going green” for businesses? We’ve always had an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) that’s traditionally been 10% for the last 15-20 years. This act increases it to a minimum of 30%. There’s an additional 10% available for U.S. man ufacturers.Obviously, the more you can make energy efficiency and green energy cheaper with government subsidies, then project adoption should go up. For us, it is transformational. We’ve never gotten that level of government support in our history.

For both Damon and White, the mission is about providing clean water — an essential resource for health — but it’s also about offset ting the harmful effects of climate change, which disproportionately affect low-income communities. Other goals include reducing gen der inequality to provide oppor tunities for women to advance, and giving investors the chance to put their money toward a human itarian

Currently,cause.

Actor Matt Damon and entre preneur Gary White are fighting to change the number of people without access to clean, safe water. Together, they cofounded Water.org, a nonprofit, and WaterEquity, an asset manager. White is CEO of both groups. Through WaterEquity specif ically, Damon and White help link communities in need with private investors. Those inves tors grant loans to individuals in those communities, who can then take the funding and set up safe water and sanitation ser vices while repaying the loans overFinancingtime. via small, afford able loans, on the other hand, allows for families to get quick relief that is longer-lasting than implementing temporary fixes.

and rising sea levels to drought, influence people’s ability to tap into and maintain safe water and sanitation systems. Com munities that are already disad vantaged suffer the most.

Data suggests that the burden of collecting water typically falls to women. Around the world, girls and women spend a collective 200 million hours per day collect ingThewater.effects of climate change, from fluctuations in precipitation

Saving Money While Saving the Planet

So far, Damon’s and White’s work has contributed to 48 million people obtain ing access to safe water and sanitation, according to Water. org. Those wishing to help can donate online at Water.org.

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race is the strongest predictor of which Americans reside without a tap or toilet at home, with Native American house holds 19 times more likely to lack running water than white households; and Black and Latino households twice as likely.Newresearch this year out of the nonprofit that I lead, DigDeep, calculated the price tag of these consequences:

a whopping $15,800 per impacted household in health care costs, lost wages, and bottled water purchases. For many, that’s more than their annualBringingincome.running water and proper sanitation to these marginalized households would not only improve the quality of life for millions, but it would also strengthen the entire U.S. economy. n

water, which they ration for weeks at a time, while peo ple in Texas border colonias often spend more than a third of their monthly income on trucked water deliveries that may not even be potable.

Expanding Water Access Could Boost the U.S. Economy by $200 Billion

How8

miles from other towns with full services.

A crisis hidden in plain sight

Without working toilets, households in Appalachia are forced to flush sewage into nearby streams — sometimes an important source of drink ing water for their community — causing outbreaks of illness. Families in the Navajo Nation drive miles to haul drinking

Wells of Life envisions a world where safe access to clean water is available to all people.

Nick Jordan, Chief Executive Officer, Wells of Life

The vision of Wells of Life has never changed. We believe in a world where safe access to clean water is available to all people, and we are work ing hard to make this vision a reality.

also recognize there are mil lions more who still need cleanOurwater.model of community investment ensures our work is measurable, sustainable, and reproducible, guaran teeing that Wells of Life is in a position to bring lifesaving results to millions more in the years to come. Our ded icated in-country team of

Wells of Life Brings Hope and Clean Water to 1 Million People

9MEDIAPLANET TAX ID: 45-1496631 | WELLSOFLIFE.ORG On o n o ion T ns o d L h's Li Join us as we bring a future of hope and life-saving clean water to 1 million children just like Leah. TAKETODAY!ACTION

local Ugandans ensures our on-the-ground work is the highest level of quality, and our Healthy Village Program is transforming the sanita tion and hygiene practices of entire communities, result ing in thousands of lives transformed.Ourin-country staff and partnerships; use of perma nent, best-in-class materials; and commitment to quality maintenance empowers Wells of Life to lead the charge toward a world where safe access to clean water is avail able to all people. We invite you to join us at Wells of Life as we invest in a future of hope and clean water. For more information, visit wellsoflife.org or call (855) 935-5763. n

This has been a remark able year of growth, with the Wells of Life helping 1 mil lion people gain safe access to clean water. We celebrate this major milestone, but we

The Water Environment Federation rep resents more than 30,000 water professionals who work every day to protect public health and the environment. We share concerns about PFAS, however, addressing PFAS isn’t easy.When found at concerning levels, water utilities require financial assistance to remove PFAS because treatment is extremely expen sive. If polluters aren’t held to account — and they rarely are — the cleanup cost is passed to water

before. With the NovaSeq X Series, we can expand the possi bilities of how far next-genera tion sequencing can go exponen tially.With a user-centric, highly sustainable experience that’s better for the planet, it’s now possible to get answers to some of the most complex questions in human genomics, answers that

were previously unattainable, and, most importantly, ones that could lead to groundbreak ing discoveries and insights. Learn more at illumnia.com/ sciencefriday. n

Walt Marlowe, P.E., CAE, Executive Director, Water Environment Federation

The Water Environment Federation is dedicated to a future with clean water and addressing of the cause of increasingly polluted water.

Illumina is on a mission to unlock the power of the human genome and impact the world for the greater good.

Unlocking Answers to the BiggestUniverse’sQuestions

Illumina

A s of right now, the future of human health has never looked more exciting. Illumina is unveiling its most advanced high throughput sequencing system, the NovaSeq X Series.

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We shouldn’t force water utilities and their customers to solve and pay for a problem cre ated by polluters. The best path forward is to stop PFAS at the source.

Stories about per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) have multiplied as we discover more about these “forever chemicals.” They’ve been in our lives since the 1940s, but we had no idea until this century that prolonged exposure could be harmful to our health.

Removing Toxic “Forever Chemicals” Starts at the Source

PFAS must be replaced in manufacturing processes with safer alternatives. Non-essen tial uses should end, and industrial discharges must be stopped. Cleanup of highly contami nated sites should be prioritized.

Whatcustomers.wereally need is an intensified focus on stopping sources of PFAS contamination. The same approach is needed with PFAS.

Scientists, researchers and clinicians are invited to dream big — in fact, bigger than ever

This article was paid for by Illumina.

At least 80% of PFAS in humans come from consumer goods, but the chemicals are also in our water supplies. That’s because PFAS even tually seep into the environment, and due to regulatory loopholes, polluters were able to dump them into waterways for decades.

Good for business

The need to drive climate action is more important than ever. That’s the message as Climate Week NYC, the biggest global climate event of its kind, concludes.

Pure Strategies provides cus tomized sustainability solu tions to help companies set sustainability goals, engage suppliers in supporting those goals, redesign products and packaging, address agricul tural impacts, and track and measure progress.

Sustainability solutions

How Businesses Can Plan and Execute Climate Strategies

Kristen Castillo