Jul 26, 2025, 12:01 PM ETPanel, Conference Presentation

Sink or Swim: Corporate Strategies for Water Resilience | Global Conference 2025

The panel addressed the intersection of corporate strategy, climate stress, and water resilience, featuring Pilar Cruz (Cargill), Melissa Fiefeld (BMO Climate Institute), and Kara Hearst (Amazon).
Global water challenges are driven by increased human usage, drought, and climate change, with agriculture responsible for 70% of global fresh water usage.

BMO/UC Berkeley Research Findings: By 2050, U.S. agricultural losses due to drought alone are estimated at $11 billion annually under a business-as-usual scenario.
- California fruit-growing operations face estimated losses of $460 million.
- Texas livestock operations face estimated losses of $890 million.
- North Dakota and Illinois grain growing states face annual losses of $650–700 million.
Extreme heat and wildfire impact crop yields in addition to drought-related financial risks.
Water stress is becoming a material risk for supply chains, with over 50% of cotton grown in areas experiencing severe water stress.

Amazon: Committed to being "water positive" for its AWS data center business by 2030, returning more water to communities than used.
- Accelerated goal for India to return more water by 2027 due to high water scarcity.
- Current water usage efficiency for data centers is 0.18 liters per kilowatt-hour, a 28% improvement since 2021.
- Operating 27 global water replenishment projects expected to return over 8 billion gallons of water annually upon completion.
Cargill: Committed to achieving water positivity across its operations and supply chain by 2030.
- In 2024 alone, Cargill restored or enabled the restoration of 38 billion liters of water, equivalent to food production for 7 million people.
- Focused on 68 plants representing 80% of facility water usage, implementing continuous improvement and monitoring systems.
- One Brazilian plant achieved a 30% year-over-year reduction in water use through continuous improvement methodologies.
Strategic Shift: Business leaders are increasingly driving climate action due to customer and investor pressure rather than purely environmental motives, according to a recent BMO survey of 700 leaders.

Collaborative Approach: Companies emphasize "co-creating" solutions with farmers rather than dictating terms, citing high farmer receptivity due to their direct experience with climate variability.
- Cargill partners with technology firms like Goanna for precision irrigation and invests in regenerative agricultural practices to improve soil resilience and reduce chemical use.
- In Mexico, Cargill facilitated a three-part partnership (technology provider, farmers, Cargill) to provide loans for precision irrigation implementation.
Technology Deployment:
- Amazon invested in "Hippo Harvest," an AI-powered robotics company in California reducing lettuce water usage by 98%.
- Amazon partnered with "Climo" in Brazil for AI-driven irrigation monitoring and soil health tracking.
- Cargill invests in transparency and traceability technologies (barcodes, cell phones, Wi-Fi) for farmers in West Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
Open Source & Transparency: Amazon launched the "Amazon Sustainability Exchange," making playbooks, methodologies (e.g., water usage efficiency metrics), and climate calculators publicly available to non-suppliers.
Data Center Siting: Amazon adjusts building standards for data centers based on regional water availability, utilizing air cooling or dry cooling systems in water-scarce regions like Arizona, Bahrain, and South Africa.

Financing Solutions: BMO utilizes sustainability-linked loans where terms are tied to specific water resilience indicators and offers financing for building retrofits to improve water and energy efficiency.
Microfinance & Community:
- Cargill partners with Water.org to provide low-cost loans in Indonesia and the Philippines, improving access for 300,000 people and reducing women's water collection time by 1.5 hours daily.
- Amazon invested $10 million as the first investor in a water and climate fund with the potential to reach 100 million people.
Water Ownership & Policy: Cargill advocates for policies ensuring agricultural access to water and open trade, while acknowledging water ownership remains a complex, region-specific issue (e.g., California state water projects).
Pricing: Participants noted that water is significantly underpriced globally, suggesting that pricing mechanisms or energy-cost proxies may be necessary to reflect water's true value.

Amazon's "Climate Pledge Friendly" program vets over 800 eco-labels, narrowing them to ~50 scientifically credible options to simplify consumer choice; certified products see a 12% uplift in growth.
Consumer interest in water and sustainability is highly regional, with awareness varying significantly between water-rich areas (e.g., Seattle) and water-scarce regions (e.g., Arizona, India).

Geographic Shifts: Meliss Fiefeld noted vegetable and tree crops in California are physically moving north due to groundwater insufficiency, creating follow-on cost impacts for dairy and livestock sectors.
Technology Scaling: The panel highlighted the potential for AI and IoT to lower the cost of water for farmers and improve efficiency, though technology must be matched with human connection and local context.
Diversification: Cargill and BMO emphasized diversifying supply chains and regenerative agriculture programs across different geographies, as solutions in Brazil (soy) do not replicate for canola in Australia or wheat in Europe.