Americans have been blessed in the sense that, for most of our history, a shortage of water has just not been a big concern. Except for the Dust Bowl period in the 1930s and short-term droughts over the years, water has been plentiful and relatively inexpensive. However, this appears to be changing and, as it does, the shortage is likely to impact both consumers and companies, including those in the professional cleaning industry.
As far as the business implications, Marc Levinson, an economist with JPMorgan Chase, complained back in 2008 that most American companies are simply not taking water shortages or the cost of water in the United States seriously. According to Levinson, many firms filling out loan applications or seeking investors “provide a great deal of information about potential risks to their operations, earnings, [and] profits, but they don’t do an adequate job of disclosing the risks they face in the event of water shortages—even short-term ones.”
Furthermore, Levinson believes that the few companies that actually do think about water supply risks remain very shortsighted. “They figure they can truck in water,” he says. “But not only is it very expensive to truck in water, but they’ll be in competition with scores of hundreds of other [companies and consumers] scrounging to get water at the same time.”
The end result: The cost of water is going up in many parts of the country and will likely continue to go up, potentially impacting a company’s competitiveness, and in worst-case scenarios, threatening its ability to survive. In fact, many experts now believe companies closing plants or going out of business entirely due to rising water costs, water shortages, or the lack of dependable water supplies will become more commonplace in years to come.
And as the cost of water goes up, so too, will the cost for many agricultural products, including those used to manufacture green cleaning products. And as these costs escalate, those increased charges will be passed on to end customers.
The the full "Water Efficiency" article is available at the ISSA website.
No comments:
Post a Comment