Water.org, co-founded by actor Matt Damon alongside engineer Gary White, has announced a global initiative to accelerate access to safe water and sanitation, Get Blue.
Unveiled in Davos, the initiative sees Water.org team up with Gap Inc., Amazon, Starbucks, and Ecolab to seek to align business leadership, consumer engagement and capital to support Water.org’s market-driven solutions.
Some 2.1 billion people – close to a quarter of the world’s population – lack access to safe water, while 3.4 billion people lack access to safe sanitation, Water.org said. The Get Blue initiative forms part of Water.org’s goal to provide 200 million people with access to safe water or sanitation by 2030.
‘Measurable change’
“Solving the global water crisis is possible if the business community comes together and focuses on measurable change,” commented Gary White, CEO and co-founder of Water.org.
“Water sits at the centre of opportunity in the global economy. Get Blue gives companies a way to lead on an issue their industries depend on, and to help scale solutions that are already reaching millions of people who need them. This is the kind of leadership required to end the water crisis within our lifetimes.”
Get Blue will provide a framework for businesses to ‘treat water as a core operating and market issue’, the group said, integrating water stewardship into products, services, and customer experiences. Businesses that are participating in the initiative have pledged to help generate funding for Water.org’s programmes, ‘demonstrating the initiative’s scale, cross-sector collaboration and cultural reach’.
Shared mission
“Through the launch of Get Blue, we’re uniting some of the world’s most influential brands behind a shared mission,” added Richard Dickson, president and CEO of Gap Inc. “As an industry, we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to lead – using our scale, creativity, and influence to turn awareness into action.”
Elsewhere, Kara Hurst, chief sustainability officer at Amazon, said that the online giant has seen the “transformative impact” of Water.org’s work to date. “Access to safe water is foundational to healthy communities and building a more sustainable business,” she said. “Through Get Blue, we’re using Amazon’s scale and innovation to show what’s possible when companies work together toward a
To date, Water.org has reached 85 million people with access to safe water or sanitation, through its portfolio of solutions, including WaterCredit, WaterEquity, and WaterConnect. Read more here.
