The Intel corporation does more than half of its manufacturing in the United States. The company works to reduce the environmental impact of its operations from cutting and minimizing water use to reusing and recycling materials. On September 20th, 2017, Intel announced a far-reaching commitment to restore 100 percent of its global water use by 2025. The project aims to enhance, conserve, and restore, support water security for the Colorado Basin, and benefit the environment. In 2016, Intel conserved 4.6 billion gallons of water.
Intel currently returns about 80 percent of the water it uses to watersheds and local communities. This announcement makes Intel the first technology company to commit to a corporate-wide, water goal to restore water use to the environment 100 percent. The company’s new global water strategy starts with funding two local projects in Arizona and Utah. According to AZ Business Magazine, the first two projects are:
The funding of a collaborative project between the Arizona Land and Water Trust, and the Arizona Game and Fish department to support the Lower San Pedro River System. The project supports conversion to low water-use native-grasses and shrubs, thereby reducing ground water pumping and supporting habitat conditions in the nearby San Pedro River. Arizona is at the heart of water management challenges in the American Southwest, and this collaborative project is a model of what can be done to support watershed health in the arid Colorado River Basin. Partnering with trout limited, ranch advisory partners and landowners on the Mountain land ranch project, located on the Colorado River in Utah, Intel’s support is facilitating the installation of advanced, efficient irrigation systems and the transition to lower water use crops that help reduce water demand from the Colorado River.
“With this announcement, Intel continues to demonstrate its extraordinary commitment to sustaining our water supplies and growing the movement to benefit river flows and the people and businesses that depend on them,” said Todd Reeve, CEO of Bonneville Environmental Foundation. “With drought and continued water stress across the U.S. globally, these projects show that corporate innovation and leadership will play a central role in achieving a water secure future.”
