第2003期:Environmental Group Says Companies Meet Water Use Targets

Major corporations in industries that produce clothing, food, drinks and technology services use a lot of water. 生产服装、食品、饮料和技术服务行业的大型企业消耗大量水。 However, many companies say they want to be more responsible about the freshwater they use. Drought, floods and extreme weather also threaten their supply chains. 然而，许多公司表示，他们希望对自己使用的淡水更加负责。 干旱、洪水和极端天气也威胁着他们的供应链。 The nonprofit environmental group Ceres ranked 72 companies for their sustainability efforts. Ceres said few of the businesses are close to reaching the 2030 goals set by the group, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts. 非营利环保组织 Ceres 对 72 家公司的可持续发展努力进行了排名。 Ceres 表示，很少有企业能够接近实现该组织设定的 2030 年目标，该组织总部位于马萨诸塞州波士顿。 Last year, Ceres launched an effort to push companies with large water usage to protect water resources. Recently, the group released a study that included the corporations Coca-Cola, General Mills and Amazon. 去年，Ceres发起了一项行动，推动用水量大的企业保护水资源。 最近，该组织发布了一项研究，其中包括可口可乐、通用磨坊和亚马逊等公司。 “There’s no doubt that companies need to do better,” said Kirsten James. She is a program director for water at Ceres. “毫无疑问，公司需要做得更好，”克尔斯滕·詹姆斯说。 她是 Ceres 的水项目总监。Ceres said the companies were chosen from four industries based on their size and use of water. They were ranked based on several factors, including promises to protect the amount and quality of the water they use, as well as the environments that supply it. They were also tested on whether they helped improve access to water and sanitation in communities where they do business. Ceres used publicly available information, including information the companies provided to the government through March.Ceres 表示，这些公司是根据规模和用水量从四个行业中选出的。 他们的排名是根据几个因素进行的，包括承诺保护其使用的水量和质量，以及供应水的环境。 他们还接受了测试，看看他们是否帮助改善了他们开展业务的社区获得水和卫生设施的情况。 Ceres 使用公开信息，包括公司截至 3 月份向政府提供的信息。 None of the companies scored above 70 percent of the points available. Some were considered to be on track to meet the goals set by the nonprofit group, with scores of at least 50 percent. 没有一家公司的得分超过 70%。 有些人被认为有望实现非营利组织设定的目标，得分至少为 50%。 Coca-Cola said its water use in 2022 was 10 percent more efficient compared to 2015. The company said it hopes to have 100 percent circular water use. That is where all water is used and returned to the watersheds it has been drawn from. 可口可乐表示，到 2022 年，其用水效率将比 2015 年提高 10%。该公司表示，希望实现 100% 的循环用水。 所有的水都在这里被使用并返回到其提取的流域。 But the company did not say how likely it was to reach that target, nor how much progress it has made. Coca-Cola also said producing its products does not use as much water as growing what goes into the products it sells. 但该公司没有透露实现这一目标的可能性有多大，也没有透露已经取得了多少进展。 可口可乐还表示，生产其产品所消耗的水量少于其销售产品的种植用水量。“The agricultural ingredients that we use use vastly more water to produce than the actual manufacturing process,” said Michael Goltzman. He is vice president of Coca Cola and a sustainability head. “我们使用的农业原料在生产过程中使用的水远多于实际制造过程中的水，”Michael Goltzman 说。 他是可口可乐公司的副总裁兼可持续发展主管。 Reports say technology companies, like Amazon and Apple, use a lot of water to cool the computers in their large data centers. The Ceres study rated both companies below 20 percent progress toward the nonprofit's targets. 报道称，亚马逊和苹果等科技公司使用大量的水来冷却大型数据中心的计算机。 Ceres 的研究认为这两家公司在实现该非营利组织目标方面的进度低于 20%。Food company General Mills was among the companies closest to meeting the 2030 targets, at 65 percent. 食品公司通用磨坊 (General Mills) 是最接近实现 2030 年目标的公司之一，完成率为 65%。 Mary Jane Melendez is the company's chief sustainability officer. She said 85 percent of the company's water use is in agriculture. Extreme weather in the U.S. has reportedly affected the company in recent years. 玛丽·简·梅伦德斯 (Mary Jane Melendez) 是该公司的首席可持续发展官。 她说，公司 85% 的用水用于农业。 据报道，近年来美国的极端天气对该公司造成了影响。 Melendez gave examples of weather-related problems. She said freezing and thawing hurt the company’s supply of sugar beets. She also said drought affected its oats supply. 梅伦德斯举了一些与天气相关的问题的例子。 她说冷冻和解冻损害了该公司的甜菜供应。 她还表示，干旱影响了燕麦供应。 Michael Kiparsky is director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He said that corporations have an interest in protecting their operations from water shortages. That could push them to make bigger steps to protect freshwater resources. 迈克尔·基帕斯基 (Michael Kiparsky) 是加州大学伯克利分校惠勒水研究所所长。 他说，企业有兴趣保护其业务免受水资源短缺的影响。 这可能会促使他们采取更大的措施来保护淡水资源。 Kiparsky pointed out there is no way to enforce Ceres’ targets. But he asked, “Does money talk? When it talks, it talks pretty loud," he said.Kiparsky 指出，没有办法强制执行 Ceres 的目标。 但他问道：“金钱会说话吗？ 当它说话时，它说话的声音很大，”他说。