 |
Climate change is a serious environmental, economic, and social challenge that warrants an equally serious response by governments and the private sector. While it may not be experienced with the intense immediacy of a global pandemic, climate change is increasingly impacting all of us. The United Nations reports that one of the ways we're experiencing climate change is through water, which has led to unpredictable supply, increased floods, prolonged droughts, impaired quality, and depleted sources. More than 2 billion people live in places experiencing high water stress, resulting in food insecurity and limited access to clean water and sanitation.
Intel says it has focused on water conservation within its operations for decades. But in 2017, the company took that commitment further, announcing its goal to restore 100% of its global water use. As a result, the projects Intel has restored approximately 1 billion gallons of water to local watersheds in the U.S. over the past two years. That's enough water to support more than 9,000 U.S. homes for a year, says the company.
Intel’s water management practices enable it to return 80% of the water they use back to their communities each year. The remaining 20% of Intel’s water use is consumed through evaporation or taken up by plants in irrigation. To advance the company’s goal, they have funded 24 water restoration projects benefiting watersheds in Arizona, California, Oregon, and New Mexico in the U.S. And recently Intel announced its first international project in Bengaluru, India. The projects are implemented with nonprofit partners, such as The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, and National Forest Foundation, and include crop conversion, invasive species removal, irrigation improvements, stream and lake restoration, and much more.
Thirteen projects are actively restoring water. The remaining projects are in progress and will begin restoring water after completion in the next one to two years. These and future projects will restore an equivalent amount of water to what we consume, bringing the 80% up to 100% of our global water use that is returned or restored.
If you’d like to learn more about the projects, Intel is supporting and progress toward its goals, visit www.intel.com/water.
 |