Conducting Water Risk Assessment for Pacific Institute

Situation

Pacific Institute’s objective was to coordinate a clustered pilot in the Noyyal-Bhavani River Basin in South India where three global apparel companies have facilities and operations to drive action informed by catchment context. Anthesis worked with the Pacific Institute, in collaboration with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), and the three apparel brands, to conduct a water risk assessment of supplier facilities.

Solution

The goal of the project was to leverage combined data and tools to develop a holistic picture of basin risk within the area combined with facility-level water consumption data to enable target setting and improvement planning. Anthesis produced this analysis by using these four resources:

• Global datasets from the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas and Flood Risk Analyzer tools.
• Basin-level assessments from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE).
• Information from facility data forms.
• Higg FEM 3.0 apparel facility data, a Sustainable Apparel Coalition tool that enables brands, retailers, and facilities to accurately measure and score a company or product’s sustainability performance.

Anthesis produced an interactive Tableau dashboard, to display facility water management data and to highlight location-specific shared water risks. It was used by the Pacific Institute as a key part of the engagement process, to gain stakeholder buy-in and provide an element of credibility to the process. Our analysis factored in current, local, operational and shared water challenges to formulate targets and strategies to reduce overall consumption.

Impact

These achievements have resulted in enhanced employee enrolment and engagement, a refined business strategy through the lens of circularity, and engaged customers through purpose-driven communications.