Tools to Assess Risk and Identify Opportunities

The demand on water resources continues to grow with growth in world population, industrialization, and energy demand. Companies are increasingly competing with other users such as agricultural and domestic users for the same water resources, putting their operations at risk from the interruption of supplies. Oil & Gas, refining and petrochemical companies are some of the largest water users and need a systematic approach to assess their water risk and develop management plans to mitigate water risk to their operations.

The Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI) Local Water Tool (LWT) is a free spreadsheet tool developed by a group of 40+ companies to help identify the external impacts, business risks, and opportunities related to water use and discharge at a specific site or operation. Companies may use the information generated in the LWT for developing management plans and communicating outcomes at their discretion. Two versions of the LWT were created: General LWT (multi-sector); and Oil and Gas LWT.

The LWT helps companies with assessment and management of water-related issues via a common and consistent visualization platform for internal and external communications. It provides connectivity between global and local water risk assessments and a uniform approach between site assessments. It provides a central repository of information to create reports for internal and external stakeholders. The data can be updated as the internal and external circumstances change to continuously update water risk and management plans.