With growing interest from customers, investors, and NGOs on water resource management, ACC members are working to demonstrate their commitment to be responsible water stewards in the communities where they operate.
To help members in their journey, ACC has collaborated with The Water Council to develop a robust Water Body Risk Assessment (WBRA) framework. This tool can empower ACC members to assess and prioritize potential water-related risks at their facilities, as well as uncover opportunities to mitigate these risks.
The WBRA framework prompts facilities to explore and evaluate:
- How water is used at their facilities, including how much water comes into and is discharged from the facility and the amount of water reused.
- The ultimate sources for incoming/outgoing water to and from the facility, along with the facility’s demand relative to other community users.
- The overall health of the regional water basin, as well as the facility’s impact on regional water quantity and quality.
Here are some examples of ACC member companies that have conducted a WBRA:
- Chevron Phillips Chemical Company (CPChem)
In 2023, CPChem began using ACC’s WBRA framework to enhance insights into water usage and conservation opportunities in shared water bodies around manufacturing sites. CPChem relies on surface water and ground water for cooling, steam production and treatment to responsibly manufacture chemicals and polymers. As part of its climate change strategy, CPChem has identified steps to better understand water stress and mitigate risk at its facilities, and ACC’s WBRA assists with this process. - Eastman
Eastman’s water policy guides the company’s focus on water stewardship. As part of its overall natural resources stewardship program, the company continues to assess water use at facility sites, particularly those in water-stressed regions or where freshwater withdrawals are high. Eastman has completed six WBRAs and will have completed nine by the end of 2025, exceeding its goal, established in 2022, of conducting two WBRAs each year. - The Lubrizol Corporation
In 2023, Lubrizol conducted water body risk assessments at 49 sites around the world, beginning with use of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI’s) Aqueduct Risk Atlas tool. The company’s Sustainability Employee Resource Groups conducted many of these assessments, which focused on water stress, flood risk and the ratio of water withdrawal to locally available water and water depletion. Each site is preparing site-level and community action plans based on the results of those assessments.
Conducting a WBRA can help chemical manufacturing facilities better understand the potential effects of its operations on the watershed, along with actions they can take to reduce or better manage risk. These efforts may also uncover opportunities to work together with community members and other stakeholders to protect shared water resources.
For more information on conducting a WBRA, contact Sharon Dubrow.
