Contemporary Business 14th Edition by Louis Boone, David Kurtz

Exercise 14

IBM Helps Keep Water Flowing Did you know it takes 11 gallons of water to manufacture one slice of bread, and 35 gallons to make a single cup of coffee? Water,
one of our most abundant resources, is under ever-greater stress. One in five people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water.IBM is taking major steps to protect the Earth's finite supply of water. Though this essential resource exists worldwide, there is no global market for it and little international or even national exchange of information about how to conserve it. "Water is about quantity, quality, space, and time," says IBM's Global Innovation Outlook report on the world's water management problems. "Whether you have a big problem or not depends entirely on where you live."IBM is addressing the future of water management in several ways. It is setting up networks of meters and sensors with special IBM software to monitor the capacity and quality of water systems that serve nations, communities, organizations, and individual homes. The company is working to ensure that treated drinking water is subject to less waste from thousands of miles of aging underground pipes and IBM's acoustic technology helps locate the worst leaks for priority repairs. IBM is also collecting data on pollution, marine life, and waves for commercial fishermen, and improving filters to inex-pensively eliminate arsenic and salt from drinking water in developing countries."We're not going to create water where there is none," says the vice president of IBM's Big Green Innovations. "But where we know water is under stress, we need to monitor what's going on and better manage it."
-For its water-management efforts, Fast Company magazine recently voted IBM 18th in the world in innovation. What do you think makes IBM particularly suited for this award?