Skip to main content
Duke University Libraries
DukeSpace Scholarship by Duke Authors
  • Login
  • Ask
  • Menu
  • Login
  • Ask a Librarian
  • Search & Find
  • Using the Library
  • Research Support
  • Course Support
  • Libraries
  • About
View Item 
  •   DukeSpace
  • Theses and Dissertations
  • Nicholas School of the Environment
  • View Item
  •   DukeSpace
  • Theses and Dissertations
  • Nicholas School of the Environment
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Maturity and Challenges of Water Sustainability across the Supply Chain

Thumbnail
View / Download
2.3 Mb
Date
2011-04-29
Author
Spear, Emily
Advisor
Gereffi, Gary
Repository Usage Stats
453
views
1,365
downloads
Abstract
Corporate engagement in water sustainability from a supply chain perspective is limited but growing, as a clear business case is manifesting. Increasingly, water is becoming a serious risk for companies with global operations, since water stress and water access problems are growing. To date, companies have cited water as a sustainability priority but often fall short of reporting sufficient data and progress on goals. However, the food and beverage industry has been active in this space, because water is an integral part of their business and touches most aspects of the supply chain. This project attempts to map the current landscape where companies are engaging in water sustainability across their supply chains and to identify various types of engagement, in order to draw out leading practices that will help companies better understand ways of advancing their level of engagement. Three companies were chosen for analysis – Nestlé Waters North America, PepsiCo, Inc., and The Coca-Cola Company – as they met the criteria of being engaged for two or more years, were within the food and beverage industry, and were willing to be interviewed. I created my own Sustainable Value Chain Collaboration Index to map out the companies’ maturity levels based on my own research and corporate interviews. The Index encompasses four key indicators (“Corporate,” “Internal Practices & Policies,” “Value Chain Collaboration,” and “External Stakeholder Collaboration”) with five stages of collaboration. The results from the Index indicate that there are some leading practices upstream with suppliers but still no standardization for best practices (i.e., none reached stage 5) and downstream engagement with customers is very limited. In addition, no company has incentives and accountability for desired behavior for their suppliers when looking at “Value Chain Collaboration.” I then conclude with some recommendations on ways companies can employ the Index and improve their level of collaboration with the value chain.
Type
Master's project
Department
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Subject
Water sustainability
Supply chain
Value chain
Corporate sustainability
Food and beverage industry
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3680
Citation
Spear, Emily (2011). Maturity and Challenges of Water Sustainability across the Supply Chain. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3680.
Collections
  • Nicholas School of the Environment
More Info
Show full item record
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Rights for Collection: Nicholas School of the Environment


Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info

Make Your Work Available Here

How to Deposit

Browse

All of DukeSpaceCommunities & CollectionsAuthorsTitlesTypesBy Issue DateDepartmentsAffiliations of Duke Author(s)SubjectsBy Submit DateThis CollectionAuthorsTitlesTypesBy Issue DateDepartmentsAffiliations of Duke Author(s)SubjectsBy Submit Date

My Account

LoginRegister

Statistics

View Usage Statistics
Duke University Libraries

Contact Us

411 Chapel Drive
Durham, NC 27708
(919) 660-5870
Perkins Library Service Desk

Digital Repositories at Duke

  • Report a problem with the repositories
  • About digital repositories at Duke
  • Accessibility Policy
  • Deaccession and DMCA Takedown Policy

TwitterFacebookYouTubeFlickrInstagramBlogs

Sign Up for Our Newsletter
  • Re-use & Attribution / Privacy
  • Harmful Language Statement
  • Support the Libraries
Duke University