The way the contest works is that participants post photos that depict sustainability. The contestant with the photo that gets the most LIKEs has a chance of becoming the winner of a tablet!

Environmental Sustainability is at Netafim’s Core

Sustainability has always been at our core. The world is being faced with the meager reality that its water resources are rapidly depleting. The world’s population needs to feed itself, but due to lack of water and old technologies, cannot always grow enough food for their survival.
An integral part of our commitment to sustainability is full engagement in the battle for a better environment, particularly emphasizing those areas in which we at Netafim can make the most significant difference. Relying on our developed technology, we bring our theory into practice, and help mend and heal the ravaged landscape, literally making the desert bloom.

As we are world-renowned for our accomplishments in achieving sustainability, we are signatories of the UN CEO Water Mandate. We also remain advocates of a balanced CO2 equilibrium in industrialized agricultural projects, seeing to it that in our design and planning of projects, ecological concerns are always and truly taken into account.

I am extremely curious to see your perspective of sustainability. I am sure I will be pleasantly surprised.

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The sessions in this multi-stakeholder conference focused on a wide range of water-related challenges facing India and the world in general, as well as the spectrum of actions that companies are taking in India and elsewhere to mitigate water risk and support more sustainable water management.

Randhir Chauhan Presents Netafim India’s Success Stories in Drip Irrigation Achieving Crop Sustainability

At the conference, Randhir Chauhan, the Managing Director of Netafim India, gave a presentation titled Corporate Stewardship: Partnering to Improve Agricultural Practices, followed by a panel discussion. It was interesting to hear about Netafim India’s projects that have successfully achieved crop production sustainability utilizing drip irrigation and innovative agricultural practices. These projects are helping India, which suffers from limited resources and exponential population growth, to become environmentally sustainable. He told how Netafim India installed drip irrigation systems in many areas, including Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, with farmers producing more and better-quality crops with less water, and how this has improved the farmers’ livelihoods. Randhir emphasized some of their partnerships with other private sector companies, most of them endorsers of the Water Mandate, such as Walmart, PepsiCo, McCain, Unilever, and Coca-Cola, and how they have helped them become more sustainable through installation of drip irrigation to grow their products.

CEO Water Mandate will be incorporated into UN’s Post-2015 Development Process

As the Millennium Development Goals are expiring in 2015, the UN and Member States also discussed their strategy on water-related challenges for the Post-2015 era, which is likely to include the development of new “Sustainable Development Goals”.

The Mumbai conference was one of our most comprehensive conferences. I especially enjoyed meeting and sharing ideas with business people from both the private and public sectors in India, who are using modern technology, including drip irrigation, to improve sustainability.

As one of the world’s largest consumer goods company, Unilever strives to introduce sustainability practices throughout their global supply chain, taking responsibility not only for their direct operations, but also for their suppliers’ and distributors’ operations, and how consumers use their products. In November 2010, they established the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, a ten year plan towards achieving sustainable growth.

Unilever invited me to speak, as they heard of Netafim’s success in achieving sustainability, especially in third world countries, and wanted to hear how Netafim, particularly our drip irrigation systems, can contribute to their sustainable living plan.

Unilever Sustainable Living Plan

The goals of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan are to:

• Reduce water use in agriculture
• Halve the greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of their products
• Improve nutrition and food security, thus improving health
• Source a greater percentage of their agricultural raw materials sustainably. This is very significant, as for certain raw materials, their share of world volume is large (examples: black tea 12%; tomatoes 6%; dried onion, and palm oil).
• Link 500,000 smallholder farmers into their supply network, thus providing them with improved livelihoods. In developing countries, three out of four poor people depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Drip Irrigation Can Help Unilever Reach Sustainability

During the lecture I explained to the Unilever managers how Netafim drip irrigation systems work, and their main advantage – growing more and better quality agricultural produce with less water and fertilizer. I also told them that we have been active throughout the world, mainly in developing countries, installing drip irrigation systems to help alleviate problems resulting from water and food. By implementing modern agricultural techniques among their growers, such as the Netafim drip irrigation systems, they are guaranteed to improve sustainability throughout their supply chain, while enhancing the growers’ communities.

I am very impressed with the Unilever plan, and am sure that with their determination and hard work, they will reach their sustainability goals. I know that other companies follow their good example, thus improving the health and wellbeing of the world’s population, reducing environmental impact, and enhancing sustainability.

Visit Begins at Drip Irrigated Jojoba Fields

Minister Niebel and his entourage started their visit in our 400-hectare beautiful jojoba fields in Hatzerim, where they were greatly impressed by the beautiful results of drip irrigation using recycled water. The minister took great pleasure in examining the branches and fruit of the jojoba plants.

Common Goals with Germany in Africa
We later met the German entourage in our conference room at Hatzerim. We took great interest in learning from Minister Niebel about Germany’s involvement in Africa, and how Germany has greatly invested in the infrastructure required for agriculture in Africa, mainly in the Sub- Sahara. We saw that we share common goals in Africa, and suggested joining forces in facing poverty.

Danny Retter, Netafim senior production engineer, gave an overview in German to the minister and his group, about the production process at the Hatzerim plant, our largest production plant in the world.

A Tasty Buffet of Drip Irrigation Grown Products
We concluded their visit by inviting the German delegation to help themselves to a spread of humus, Israeli salad, and wine, all grown using Netafim drip irrigation. While eating, we suggested that they consider growing humus (Chickpeas) in Africa for a number of reasons: Besides for being tasty, it is also a very healthy and nourishing basic food; Drip irrigation yields great results in growing humus; Humus growing can supply small farmers with extra income.

The visit left us and the German delegation in anticipation of working together in the future to meet our common goals in Africa.

Implementing the blueprint for corporate sustainability leadership

The approximately 50 companies who participated in the LEAD symposium were invited due to their history of engagement with the UN Global Compact – locally and/or globally. Also, these companies have committed themselves to work towards implementing the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership, which was developed in close consultation with a large number of corporate participants and stakeholders and widely endorsed by businesses, governments, and civil society at the Leaders Summit in New York in June 2010. The companies represented at the symposium were located at the far corners of the globe, and include a variety of businesses, from construction to financial servicesand chemicals.

Communicating corporate sustainability leadership
The topic on the first day of the conference was Communicating Corporate Sustainability Leadership. As it has been realized in recent years that it is imperative for leading businesses to communicate sustainability information to shareholders and other stakeholders, the discussions focused on how detailed these sustainability information reports should be.

The second day of the conference concentrated on the creation of a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG ) – what these goals ideally should cover from a business perspective, and how the grouping and content of the goals can best be shaped in a way that both ensure relevance to business and encourage greater business participation in their delivery.

Benchmarking with different types of companies
I enjoyed my time at the conference for a number of reasons. Firstly, I feel it is important to benchmark and meet representatives from different types of companies that have one thing in common with Netafim: they are not out only to make money, but operate their businesses according to a set of values. At Netafim, we feel that is the only way a business can succeed, and that is why we have been operating in this fashion since our inception; perhaps this is a result of our being a kibbutz company that gives priority to social values. Companies with membership in the Global Compact put such issues at the top of their priority list, so that they know exactly what to do and the order in which to do it.

Secondly, when it comes to sustainability and values, I believe that it is of utmost importance to belong to a framework in order to succeed, and this organization and its set of goals provide that necessary framework.

Thirdly, I always enjoy imparting to others how drip irrigation can solve many of the world’s problems, and this was the perfect setting for doing so.

A prioritized list of global goals
At the conclusion of the symposium, we discussed the goals that we are setting for ourselves, and consolidated a prioritized list of global goals, resulting in the following combined score:

• Food security/agriculture
• Health care/disease
• Energy
• Water/sanitation
• Education
• Poverty
• Employment/growth
• Finances/financial reform
• Eco-resources/sustainability
• Rule of law/governance/regs
• Equity/human rights
• Women/gender
• Climate change
• Tech/telecom/infrastructure
• Youth
• Inclusive economic growth
• Social inclusion
• Conflict/fragile nations

I was fortunate enough to be involved with the team that developed the site’s content, and Netafim Legacy has a particularly special place in my heart: Netafim’s history is very much a reflection of my own personal and professional history.

I was just 21 when in 1965, Kibbutz Hatzerim – the place I’ve called home for nearly 50 years – acquired the rights to a simple dripper device that marked the establishment of Netafim. Two years later, I fondly recall Netafim’s drippers being installed in a Hatzerim pepper field that I managed. As a buyer for Hatzerim in 1968-69, I spent much of my time working for Netafim, which quickly became the main source of our kibbutz’s revenues. In 1975, I officially joined Netafim, and in 1981, I moved to California, helping found its first foreign subsidiary, Netafim USA. I’ve been with the company ever since, holding a range of positions both in Israel and abroad.

A journey through the site – whether via the Timeline highlighting our major achievements, the People section featuring our founders, inventors and leaders, or the Subsidiaries section profiling our global subsidiaries – brings out the best of the “Netafim spirit.” And that spirit is expressed in many ways.

Agricultural Roots
As a company founded by Israel’s pioneering agricultural sector, Netafim identifies with the very customers we serve – growers. As such, not only are our values directly aligned with fellow farmers worldwide, but also we know how to conduct a simple, straightforward dialogue with our customers.

Innovation
As a company comprised of small yet sophisticated, well educated and resourceful growers, Netafim has continuously focused on innovation in order to stay one step ahead at all times. From introducing the first pressure-compensated dripper in 1978 to recently developing the most advanced real-time decision support system for crop management, Netafim has always been at the forefront of agricultural technology.

Community/Social Responsibility
As a company rooted in the kibbutz movement’s communal-driven system, Netafim is committed to community and social responsibility. This includes promotion of shared resources, values and responsibilities among fellow kibbutz members, Israelis and the world population on the whole.

With the world’s most valuable natural resources – water, arable land and energy – dwindling, Netafim is now dedicated to achieving sustainable productivity. One of my contributions to Netafim Legacy was preparation of the Sustainable Productivity exhibition – one of three rotating exhibitions within the extraordinary site. I invite you to visit the exhibition and the entire site to get a better appreciation of both our rich and unique legacy as well as our vision of the future.

Telling the story of Netafim and drip irrigation as it has never been told before, Netafim Legacy affirms how the company has “done well by doing good.” I’m proud to have played a role in this evolving narrative, and hope to continue to do so in the years to come.

About the report

The report, which is written in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines at Application Level B, covers our sustainability performance in 2011. We have been constantly reporting on our sustainability activities through this blog and other channels, but this is the first time we have gathered all the information and put it in a single comprehensive report. The report covers our efforts to increase access to water and improve the quality of life in low-income countries. This includes our participation in the UN Global Compact LEAD initiative, and in the CEO Water Mandate, and several other leading sustainable development forums.

In our first report, we:

• Introduce Netafim, our company history, vision, goals, corporate governance and the role we play in society and sustainable development.
• Identify the stakeholder groups that we engage with and what’s most important to them in terms of Netafim’s impacts.
• Discuss the issue of water poverty and the role we play in increasing access to water through our micro-irrigation (the Drip Revolution!) and crop management technologies, with many examples of how they have changed lives throughout the world.
• Discuss the benefits of urban landscaping and give examples from Asia where this technology is being used to advance low-carbon city-living.
• Disclose our performance as a responsible employer, as an expert source of support for our customers, our R&D developments at the cutting –edge of new irrigation technologies, and our impact on the environment. We also provide examples of our commitment to community empowerment and the activities we undertake around the world.

To download the report: click here

We believe transparency is essential for sustainable productivity and growth and therefore we intend to publish a full sustainability report, such as this one, every two years.

What is Water Action Hub?

The Water Action Hub was developed by the CEO Water Mandate in partnership with the International Business Leaders Forum; Deloitte; GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; and the Pacific Institute. This platform was designed to promote collaboration among businesses and other stakeholders in water-related initiatives.

Action areas that usually come first on our list at Netafim are Sustainable Agriculture, Efficient Water Use and Monitoring and Knowledge Sharing. The hub offers additional important action areas.

The hub facilitates match-making between users for collaboration, by allowing users to identify potential collective action opportunities.

How does it work?

The Hub allows users to identify potential collective action opportunities via four primary entry points: river basins, organizations, projects, and collaboration action areas.

To find matches, Hub users can search across information sets and filter criteria, including global/trans-regional action areas, a specific geography of interest, perceived local water challenges, scope of existing on-the-ground projects, or type of partner organization sought.

The Hub features a simple mapping function that visually places organizations’ salient water-related projects within river basin maps. Each river basin map includes the related projects and links to additional information entered by Hub users for their respective projects.

Use this link to learn first-hand how effective this tool can be.

Interoperability with other online analytical mapping tools

The maps are designed to allow interoperability with other online analytical mapping tools such as the World Resource Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas (which maps a range of water risk factors at the watershed level) or the WWF Water Risk Filter (which helps companies identify water risks and mitigation strategies at the basin level).

Tagging system links users

A “tagging system” links Hub users and associated projects with prospective collaboration areas of interest. Each Hub user can provide information about their organization, water collaborations and projects, and/or the water challenges they would like to address with other collaborators.

90% of the world’s water is in the hands of the private sector

70% of the world’s available water is used for agriculture, 20% for industrial purposes, and only 10% of the water is used for domestic consumption: drinking, sanitation etc. This means that 90% of the world’s water is under the responsibility of the business sector. For this reason it is important to educate the private sector in order to promote the adoption of sustainable practices. This is the purpose of this event and I can say that it is succeeding.

PepsiCo receives 2012 Stockholm Industry Water Award

To recognize the efforts made by members of the private sector every year the event’s committee awards the Stockholm Industry Water Award, recognizing the sustainability achievements made by members of the private sector. This year’s winner was PepsiCo, while last year the award was given to Nestle.

“PepsiCo has successfully reduced water consumption in its production, and extended its commitment beyond the company’s own operations to help solve water challenges on a broad scale,” the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) Award Jury said when announcing the award. The jury added that, “PepsiCo’s water commitment has not stopped at the factory walls,” as the company has, “saved water all along its agricultural supply chain.” Reducing water use in the company’s agricultural supply chain was a key element to PepsiCo reaching its water reduction goal four years early.

The awareness to water issues among many companies, especially from the food & beverage and from the garment industries, is growing. I am sure that several companies are in line for next year’s award.

The importance of “frontal training”

During one of the events at the conference I have presented Netafim’s vision regarding the importance of “Hands-on training” in the field or at a classroom, to allow transition from traditional to modern agriculture techniques, and to ensure that the modern systems are utilized in an optimal manner. In the future Netafim will most likely use the power and availability of mobile phones as platform for remote training. This will dramatically improve our ability to share our knowledge and to ensure optimal operation and maintenance of the systems, especially among smallholders in remote rural areas.

UN global compact CEO water mandate launches global water action hub

During the Water Week conference the UN global compact CEO water mandate launched the global Water Action Hub. The Water Action Hub is an online map-based data management system that facilitates match-making, by allowing users to identify potential collective action opportunities via river basins, organizations, projects, and collaboration action areas. I will discuss in greater length this initiative in my next blog post.

Stay tuned…

Natty Barak

Challenges of wastewater recycling

Wastewater has been recognized as being effective for irrigation. Of course it has to be applied carefully, as it is not recommended to “spray” this unclean water to the air, and we must prevent its contact with wildlife. So drip irrigation, and especially subsurface drip irrigation, is the best candidate for this purpose. However, using recycled wastewater in drip irrigation is challenging as it requires advanced technologies that will prevent the clogging of the drippers.

Netafim’s SDI is the ideal irrigation solution for wastewater

Netafim has developed SDI – subsurface drip irrigation for irrigation with wastewater, as it is the only method that prevents the contaminated water from coming into contact with the ground’s surface and crops. It also protects wildlife, as animals are not at risk of drinking polluted water. These are in addition to the regular advantages of using SDI for irrigation with freshwater, which include: less evaporation, protection from damage, animals, and vandalism, prevention of weeds, and administration of water and nutrients directly to the roots.

Netafim has especially designed SDI for use with recycled water –its drippers are with a wider flow path, it has water source filtration, integral filtration and self-cleaning of the dripper, a non-leakage mechanism, and pulse and low-flow systems. SDI features a built-in physical barrier to prevent root intrusion, antisiphon drippers to prevent clogging.

Successful wastewater usage in the Bedouin city of Rahat

In the Bedouin city of Rahat, we have successfully installed an irrigation system of purified wastewater in its potato fields. Together with Odis, a filter manufacturer and a long time supplier of Netafim, we have also installed an irrigation system in a Crete hotel for using their recycled water to irrigate their gardens.

Netafim’s SDI solution is expected to be widely used in the coming years.