This week, we distill insights around AT&T and EDF's data-analysis approach to finding a cost-effective way to reduce their water footprint. For more about AT&T's water initiative, visit: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/att-building-water-efficiency-peoples-insights-volume-2-issue-31/ 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on reputation, employee engagement and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have further synthesized the insights to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights annual report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement, now available as a Kindle eBook. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/future-of-engagement

1. Reputation | Employee Engagement | Citizenship
AT&T
Building
Water
Efficiency
People’s Insights: Volume 2, Issue 31

2. AT&T and EDF’s water saving
initiative
To maintain their
'aquaprint,' AT&T
partnered with the
Environmental Defence
Fund and used data
analysis to reduce their
water consumption at
cooling towers.
Source: environmentalleader.com

3. Good for business2
This project is designed to
help AT&T find a costeffective way to reduce its
water footprint and
operational costs, and also
contributes to their position
as a socially responsible
company.
Source: thecro.com
In fact, AT&T ranked #1 on
Corporate Responsibility
Magazine‘s 100 Best
Corporate Citizens List,
and recognized in the
Dow Jones Sustainability
Index North America for
the fourth year.

4. Using data to identify savings
From 2010-11, AT&T
worked to identify sites with
the highest water
consumption. In 2012,
AT&T partnered with EDF
to optimize consumption
and to measure the
resulting savings in cost
across pilot facilities.
The Building Water
Efficiency toolkit was
developed from these pilot
projects, and gives
organizations simple costeffective resources to build
their own water efficiency
programs.

5. Sharing the Toolkit
AT&T and EDF provide the
toolkit for free along with a
series of free webinars to
introduce and promote the
toolkit.
The toolkit itself comprises
of a Water Scorecard and
Water Efficiency Calculator
to evaluate and identify
consumption and savings
opportunities, and a
Cooling System
guide and video series to
educate stakeholders.

6. The ever-rising importance of water
McKinsey's report Charting
our Water Future (2009)
notes that in the last 50
years, the world’s
population has doubled and
global GDP has grown
tenfold, agricultural and
industrial output has
boomed, and cities have
burgeoned.
This growth, and these
competing uses, have put
global water resources
under ever-increasing
strain.
Sources: Business Insider, NYTimes, National Geographic

7. Collaborating to solve today's social
challenges
Collaborative actions are particularly
crucial in assessing and addressing
climate change impacts, since there are
large gaps in knowledge and information
related to climate change and water,
especially data and prediction modeling
at the watershed level.
Pacific Institute
Water Scarcity & Climate Change:
Growing Risks for Businesses & Investors
Thinkers and doers point
out that collaboration is
key to tackling social
challenges and that
stakeholders need to
pool together knowledge,
information and data to
make progress.

8. “Can’t do it alone”
As AT&T seeks to address some of society’s
greatest challenges – access to education, use
of resources, and the dangers of texting while
driving – one of our most important realizations
has been that we cannot go it alone. This past
year, we undertook initiatives with groups like
Communities in Schools, Environmental
Defense Fund and the National Organizations
for Youth Safety to tackle these tough issues.
Beth Shiroishi
Vice President of Sustainability and
Philanthropy, AT&T
Source: 3blmedia.com
Brands too are
cognizant of the need
for collaboration, and
are actively working with
non profit organizations
and government bodies
to tackle these
challenges.

9. Increasing role of private sector
The expertise, resources and planning
that professionals bring to the table are
rarely replicated by the government. It
won’t be long before the government
starts handing over water management to
private firms, just as we are seeing in the
power sector.
Ashraf Engineer
Vice-President – Content & Insights,
MSLGROUP (India)
MSLGROUP India's Ashraf
Engineer notes that private
companies will have an
increasing role to play in
water management.

10. Engaging employees around
Sustainability
Several brands are
designing programs that
involve employees in their
sustainability initiatives.
For example, Honda
crowdsources ideas with its
annual Innovative
Ideas Convention, GE
organizes Eco Treasure
Hunts and Levi's leveraged
their employees collective
social presence with its
Waterless program.
Source: Honda

11. People, data and devices for
Sustainability
Brands, organizations and
entrepreneurs are also
energizing people around
their sustainability
initiatives, and are
beginning to use data and
connected devices to help
people measure and
manage their carbon
footprint.
Sources: Charity Water, NatGeo's Changing the Course, Twitter

12. Real & virtual engagement is needed
In a digital world, the entire model of
sustainability engagement has to shift. It is no
longer enough to just have brown-bag lunches
or a river cleanup at your headquarters and call
it your engagement program. Creating dynamic
content that is relevant, exciting and accessible
is crucial, and using a social network to
distribute your content is especially effective.
Toby Russell and Thomas Hendrick
Natural Capitalism Solutions
Bloggers and consultants
note the need for
sustainability engagement
programs to evolve with
the times, to stay
relevant.

13. Read People’s Lab insights & foresights
The People’s Lab team shares the insights and foresights from the
MSLGROUP Insights Network on the People’s Insights weekly blog , quarterly
magazine and annual report.
MSLGROUP
INSIGHTS NETWORK
PEOPLE’S INSIGHTS
WEEKLY BLOG
PEOPLE’S INSIGHTS
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE
100+ MSLGROUP planners
share and discuss inspiring
projects on reputation,
employee engagement and
citizenship.
We deep dive into
conversations around one
project to distill insights and
foresights.
Every quarter, we compile the
best insights from the network
and the blog into a magazine,
as a showcase of our
capabilities.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights

14. People’s Lab: Crowdsourcing Insights &
Innovation
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform and
approach that helps organizations tap into people’s insight for innovation,
storytelling and change.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights

15. For People’s Lab solutions,
please contact:
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com