Deep Learning: Exploring urban water issues and innovative solutions in the climate crisis

Blog by Val Fishman, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, and Robert Gould, Ag Innovations

CWAC members come from around the country and state in the spring and fall to take action through learning and collaboration. Our Fall 2019 CWAC member meeting held in Silicon Valley began on the heels of many CWAC members experiencing fire evacuations, smoke from miles away, and related power outages; an unfortunate ‘new normal’ in California. As always, everyone came ready to engage in productive dialogue and to embrace the need and urgency for collective action.  

Pre-competitive Friendship: A CWAC member dinner is where you can find these two beverages served side by side! The two CWAC members featured here are Nyima Dansira from PepsiCo and Jon Radtke from Coca-Cola

Sources to Sinks: Rethinking Urban Water Supply and Demand in the Climate Context

This almost 3-day session connected the dots between urban areas and their headwaters, where we had spent time during the last two meetings. An incredible amount of content and thought-provoking work was packed into another productive, and an “exhaustingly inspiring” 48 hours – accurately described by Google’s Eddie Corwin. Eddie was our generous host at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View along with sponsorship from Microsoft.

A more holistic, Ecosystems-based approach to urban water

With a full day and evening of dedicated work time, we deepened our knowledge of California’s urban water challenges and climate impacts from remarkable guest speakers like Robin Grossinger from the SF Estuary Institute; Newsha Ajami, Director of Urban Water Policy at Stanford’s Water in the West; and Felicia Marcus, former Chairperson of the California State Water Resources Control Board; and our own Jason Morrison, from the Pacific Institute.

The Project Task Force made progress on CWAC project criteria, project priorities, and regionally focused teams excited about moving innovative projects forward and exploring how water projects can be integrated into carbon projects – with a real emerging interest in Blue Carbon. Blue carbon is carbon sequestered in aquatic ecosystems and plants that exceed the uptake rates greater and faster than almost all terrestrial ones: wetlands, sea grass, seaweed and kelp.

Alviso Environmental Education Center at the edge of the wetlands. Dave Cordell, with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Dave Helsing, with the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, telling the story of how many agencies, cities, and stakeholders have and are working together to restore many 100’s of acres of wetlands and salt ponds, and protect society.

Wetlands as A Solution

The group packed in a full day of site tours that began with a visit to Ducks Unlimited’s South Bay Wetlands project at the Alviso Environmental Education Center. We learned about the importance of salt marsh wetlands restoration; the features and benefits of salt ponds and marsh - including horizontal levees that grow higher with sea level rise; the connections to creeks and wastewater discharge impacts; as well as the role of such wetlands in the Bay Area with ‘green infrastructure’.

Restored wetlands and salt ponds, and other green infrastructure like horizontal levees, protect communities and water infrastructure against sea-level rise and generate many other benefits. These are great examples of cost-effective green infrastructure protecting grey infrastructure (centralized water and wastewater treatment plants, sewer lines, roads, many commercial buildings, airports, etc. from faster-than-expected sea level rise. A couple of the corporate members expressed interest in exploring collaboration on such projects. This was a new insight as a result of the hands-on learning experience.

Reducing Dependence upon imported water

Next was a visit to the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center to learn about the three-part process of turning wastewater into some of the cleanest drinking water imaginable! 

• The first step is micro-filtration to remove large viruses and bacteria. 

• The second step applies reverse osmosis to remove pharmaceuticals and proteins. 

• The final step is ultraviolet light (UV) at a high intensity which removes all other pathogens. 

We also learned how large-scale water recycling fits into a “OneWater” approach.

Ready for recycled wastewater for drinking?

Cleaner than tap water… We tried it and lived to tell the tale. It was largely uneventful as we realized the issue of drinking recycled water is really psychological.

Valley Water actually pumps the 8 million gallons of recycled water it produces each day back into the ground for consumption at a later time, an approach called Indirect Potable Reuse. This is an innovative large-scale, highly-engineered, and primarily centralized solution that requires a significant amount of energy. It clearly has a role to play, hopefully a much bigger one in Silicon Valley and other urban areas, as it is in Orange County and other places around the world. Yet, questions remain and it is only a piece of the puzzle. Members who use filtration processes were inspired to think about its relationship to clean drinking water in watersheds they work in. Their One Water initiative is an integrated water management approach addresses water conservation for homes and businesses, flood prevention, and ecosystem/creek stewardship.

Tailored to the needs of Silicon Valley’s human needs, as well as those of the local ecosystems and water cycle, their version of the One Water approach enables planners to make better investment decisions by finding overlapping needs and benefits in those three areas, where possible. In addition to an effective conservation program, they, for example, they are restoring parts of Coyote and Penitencia Creeks which reduces flood risks, while increasing habitat and even increasing water recharge.

Distributed Nature-based Solutions

Another dimension of reducing dependence upon imported water is using, reusing, capturing, cleaning water at the facility or campus level. Both Google, and soon Microsoft, are working to not only dramatically reduce water imports and use, but improve water quality landing on (in the form of rain) and leaving its properties. Facilities and landscaping that is quickly moving towards net positive water, providing more clean water to the environment than it uses.

Google provided a tour of distributed green infrastructure on their campus courtesy of the Google Ecology program. This included ecosystem restoration and stormwater capture.

While the group learned about the important function and benefits of the bio-swales, rain gardens, urban forestry, re-oaking, place and climate-appropriate plant selection and efficient irrigation, it was clear that part of the business case for this investment was employee satisfaction, which tends to translate to greater performance, retention, and attraction. This is well known for healthy and naturally-lit interior spaces, but for exterior ones its a revelation. Perhaps all the more important in our high-tech, screen-filled world. Googlers riding bikes or hosting walking meetings outside were abundant during our tour. We also spotted a jack rabbit! (Employee or not, the rabbit seemed to enjoy the landscaping, too.)

Eddie Corwin sharing another chapter in the story of Google’s bio-inspired water practices.

Restoring and Tapping the Water Cycle

When taking in the sizable and growing range of solutions to reuse, capture, and use water more efficiently, we start seeing many sources of water that are not imported and right before us. Like with solar energy, we realize there’s an abundance before us. If we restore the water cycle, we find many ways to tap it sustainably.

Integrated, Ecosystem-based Watershed Stewardship

We concluded our field day in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley on a ridge line between a watershed with no imported water (facing west) and one that with imported water (facing east). Kellyx Nelson from the San Mateo Resource Conservation District (SMRCD) who appropriately brought together the importance of working across the urban / rural divide to move toward resilient integrated watershed stewardship. We learned about the role of governments, businesses, NGOs and individuals in innovative water and climate solutions from the perspective of the state’s very first Resource Conservation District. Kellyx drove home the importance of authentic long-term relationships, acting as an ally, based on truly seeing and honoring different perspectives to our complex climate and water challenges. Ecosystems thinking and practice is about relationship and healthy, reciprocal exchange.

From the top of the watershed, we begin to see…through the fog… small beginnings turn into substantial supply and beauty.

As Kamyar Guivetchi a lead planner for CA’s Department of Water Resources who develops the state’s Water Plan insightfully observes in regard to the shift happening in the water world, “It’s not about big infrastructure; it’s about big collaboration among private, public and nonprofit interests.”  

Within CWAC, members share a commitment to authentic relationships and communication while also continuing to explore and commit to solutions that work for business, people and the environment (not in that order).

Most Water solutions are climate solutions…and the climate crisis calls for us to accelerate our efforts.

Members shared that left enthusiastically committed to collaborating on solutions. Many reported gaining a better sense of the local and remote sources of water supply and demand, with the urgency required for California’s shared water challenges today and in the future, all at far greater risk due to climate change. While the challenge can feel daunting and threats very real, there are also many opportunities to address the speed and scale of climate crisis - reducing greenhouse gases, increasing resilience and adaptation - through water solutions. The good news is most water solutions are climate solutions, and vice versa. Solutions like renewable energy and energy efficiency save water that would otherwise be used to produce fossil fuels. Not surprisingly, nature-based climate solutions typically save water as they capture and infiltrate rainwater as they build soil and sequester carbon. Innovation is happening around both centralized and distributed solutions, whether technological or ecological.

CWAC members are primed to pursue clear and compelling pathways to developing, scaling, and accelerating these solutions in the coming months.

CWAC Enhances a World-Class Education in Water Stewardship

By Adrienne Gifford, Global Head of Sustainability, Olam Spices

Not having grown up in California, when I moved to Fresno two years ago to take my current position as Global Head of Sustainability for Olam Spices, I was both surprised and thrilled when I learned that my new home - the Central Valley of California - is one of the world’s most productive agriculture regions. 

Using less than 1% of U.S. farmland, the Central Valley produces more than 250 different crops – comprising 25% of the U.S. total food production, including 40% of the nation's fruits, nuts, and other table foods*. (*Source: https://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects/central-valley/about-central-valley.html)

But perhaps more surprising, was the fact that this food production still manages to occur in a drought-prone region. When I arrived in March 2017, the Central Valley was experiencing a desperately needed once-in-100-year rain… finally relief from the 2011-2017 drought – the worst California has experienced in 1,200 years. For large agri-businesses such as Olam, water security is therefore a business imperative and along with our contracted growers - we must make tough choices around usage. 

Water stewardship begins with the quality of the seed planted in the ground, extends through the cultivation and processing of the crop, and goes beyond what we do within our own four walls. It often means trial, error and a wholesale re-imagining of agriculture!

The team here is proud to have bred the world’s highest solid-content onion allowing for a reduction of approximately 7.12bn gallons of water over the last 10 years! It goes without saying that Olam and our contracted growers employ the most advanced agtech solutions including GPS, soil moisture sensors, imaging, and highly automated drip irrigation systems. And our customers are interested in the results – they want to know that their products have the smallest footprint possible. Through our sustainable sourcing solution AtSource customers can track the environmental footprint – including water use – from our farms to their doorstep; and through this insight, help us shape real change on the ground, particularly in terms of addressing the wider needs of the landscape. And here I must give a shout out to many of the farmers and growers who don’t get enough credit for the efforts they make.

Take Bowles Farming Company – a contracted supplier to Olam Spices. This leading edge farm invests its profits to help manage the second largest contiguous wetlands in the U.S., providing habitat for migratory waterfowl. They have also restored over 6 miles of native riparian area around the farm; and planted and irrigated hundreds of acres of native plant species such as the milkweed to provide habitat for endangered species like the monarch butterfly.  

Don Cameron of Terranova Ranch, another contracted grower for Olam Spices, is implementing a grant from the California Department of Water Resources, matched by major investment by the farm -  to build infrastructure to capture and distribute floodwater to support on-farm groundwater re-charge. When the project is completed, Terranova will be able to recharge 1,000-acre feet (1-acre foot = 325,851 gallons or 1,233.48 cubic meters) of water per day. 

But Olam and our farmers – or any organization - cannot do it alone.  Water stewardship is complex, and solutions are challenging and as illustrated in previous examples - expensive to implement. We must support our farmers to create impact at scale. This is where alliances like the California Water Action Collaborative (CWAC) can offer good frameworks and support. 

Over the past two and half years, I have had an amazing opportunity to participate in and support the on-going development of the CWAC. As a sustainability professional, trying to navigate the maze of water policy changes and hydrological events in California would be overwhelming without CWAC’s group of experts to make sense of it all.  

Collaborating to access their insight into the legal and regulatory environment, as well as the workings of natural ecosystems, means we can learn how our water usage affects everyone and everything around us.

From researching relevant projects, to defining the methodologies for assessment, the groundwork is laid for us to focus on driving net-positive impact in the communities where we’re operating and directly impacting water availability. 

Over the past 5 years, Olam has contributed to the development of the CWAC, supporting collective action projects such as the Corporate Water Stewardship and California Water Action Plan. 

Last fall, Olam Spices hosted the bi-annual meeting at our Fresno headquarters, helping to organize a “learning journey” for CWAC members to trace water from its source in the Sierra Nevada Mountain headwaters to the crop fields, factories, and residential users in the Valley below.

This journey created awareness among leading corporates and NGOs of the importance of the health of our national forests, meadows, and conveyance infrastructure in ensuring the availability and quality of water for all users in the state.

I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to work with world-class farmers and participate in CWAC. My experiences have provided me with the knowledge, tools, and resources to develop strategies within our supply chains for Olam to improve our water stewardship. And it has opened my eyes about how we all need to play our part and move beyond our own four walls.  

Collective action on water stewardship programmes - with our farmers, our peers, NGOs and finance institutions - is critical, in order to scale up impact through shared expertise and resource. Collaboration at the local, regional and national levels of the water basin is the only way to affect meaningful change.

Climate Resilience in the Urban Context: Sustainable Landscapes for Southern California Businesses

The Pacific Institute, in collaboration with the CEO Water Mandate, California Forward, and Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, released a new report, “Sustainable Landscapes on Commercial and Industrial Properties in the Santa Ana River Watershed,” accompanied by an interactive online map.

This report and map  represent phase one of a CWAC collective action project, supported by CWAC members Coca-Cola, Netafim, and Nestle Waters North America. With the release of the report, Pacific Institute and partners are  are now launching into phase two, for which we are actively recruiting more companies (within and beyond CWAC) to participate.

Through sustainable landscapes, we can improve the resilience of our cities.

Around the world, communities are facing water-related crises at an unprecedented scale. Two of the top five global risks identified by the World Economic Forum for 2019 are extreme weather events and failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, both of which have direct ties to water. Extreme weather, exacerbated by climate change, manifests through water – storms, floods, and droughts. Adapting to these new extremes will require rethinking our water management systems, including the way we design our urban areas to interact with water.

The combination of continued growth and climate change puts California cities at a critical nexus for water and climate resilience. Yet, California’s urban landscapes are not designed for resilience; they are characterized by vast expanses of thirsty lawns and impermeable pavement. Fortunately, more sustainable options exist, and implementing them can provide tangible benefits to individual properties and to local communities.

The new report examines the benefits and opportunities of installing sustainable landscapes on commercial and industrial (CI) properties, with a focus on the Santa Ana River Watershed in California. It also explores barriers to more widespread uptake of such landscapes by companies, coupled with recommendations for overcoming these barriers and scaling the approach. While focused on the Santa Ana River Watershed, the approach and methodology can be replicated elsewhere, and it is our hope to scale this work to other regions. Here is a snapshot of some of the key findings:

Sustainable landscape practices provide multiple benefits.

‘Sustainable landscapes’ are in balance with local climate and ecology and actively contribute to watershed health by providing economic, social, and environmental benefits. This report focused on five sustainable landscape practices:

1. Turf replacement;

2. Bioswales and rain gardens;

3. Permeable pavement;

4. Green roofs; and

5. Rain tanks and cisterns.

These landscape practice can make substantial contributions toward improved surface water quality, flood management, and water supply reliability. They can also reduce energy usage and associated greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon, improve ecosystem and human health, promote economic activity, and enhance community resilience.

Businesses stand to gain from investing in sustainable landscapes.

In addition to the broad-reaching water security and climate resiliency benefits that sustainable landscapes can create, businesses stand to gain directly from investments in sustainable landscape practices. Through surveys and interviews with Southern California businesses, we found that these can include, but are not limited to:

• Financial considerations: Sustainable landscape practices can provide financial benefits through, for example, reduced water, energy and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.

• Corporate sustainability goals: A growing number of companies have adopted sustainability goals and investing in sustainable landscapes can help contribute these, particularly to water and energy targets.

• Reputation and public perception: Converting to a sustainable landscape is a highly visible way for a business to signal their commitment to sustainability to customers and the local community, as well as to investors and peer companies.

• Social responsibility: Companies are increasingly recognizing the water-related risks facing their business operations and their communities. While companies are often motivated by the desire to reduce business risks, many are also motivated by a commitment to social responsibility.

Businesses have a vital role to play in transitioning to sustainable landscapes.

The scope and scale of urban resiliency challenges warrant action by all – including the business community. CI properties are disproportionately landscaped with turf grass and have large impervious surfaces. In the Santa Ana River Watershed, for example, CI parcels have three times as much turf grass as residential parcels. Impervious surfaces on CI properties make up almost 10 percent of the entire watershed area. As a result, there are vast areas owned and operated by businesses that can be converted to sustainable landscapes that contribute to shared watershed goals.

Curious what benefits are available at your company’s facilities? You can explore them using this interactive mapping tool.