CHINA: The first stakeholder forum for water stewardship
A stakeholder movement that came to life in Wuxi in 2015 was the Taihu International Forum, bringing together business, NGOs, civil society and policy makers into the same room.
Between 2014-2020, the partnership engaged in river basin work in the Taihu area in China. The work targeted suppliers, policy makers, local communities and brands – ranging from supplier trainings and scalable industry park programs, to initiating meeting forums where joint water challenges could be addressed.
The Taihu Basin is home to a significant part of China’s manufacturing, including 37 percent of textile production. The intense industry has negative impact on the water resources, with agricultural runoff and wastewater discharge from textile factories polluting the water.
The Taihu basin is one of WWF’s priority areas and for the past ten years, WWF China has been working to find ways to take pressure off the basin. In 2014, H&M Group, through the partnership, was the first global fashion brand to join WWF’s water stewardship program in the Taihu basin. Here, the company supported efforts to raise awareness around water issues and engaged suppliers, brands and policy makers on water stewardship.
During this time, more than five hundred suppliers and industrial parks took part in water stewardship trainings, policy makers actively engaged in water issues and brands such as HSBC, Tommy Hilfiger and Tchibo joined collective action in China. In addition to corporate stewardship actions, government has taken measures to improve water quality in the Taihu Lake – with good results. In recent years, the water quality of Taihu Basin has gradually improved.
The water stewardship measures taken then are today cornerstones of “the Taihu model”, a model that now is scaled up and used in other areas with textile industry clusters present.
Read more about the different elements of the model below.
A stakeholder movement that came to life in Wuxi in 2015 was the Taihu International Forum, bringing together business, NGOs, civil society and policy makers into the same room.
Water stewardship trainings for suppliers and industrial parks have been held from 2017, covering areas such as local water status and industry impacts, policy development, techniques on wastewater treatment and water standards. The programs have also included visits to factories to showcase water best practice.
In 2014, the WWF H&M Group partnership was part of launching the first Water Stewardship Industrial Park project in Taihu. More than twenty textile mills collaborated to improve water management. Four years later, the model was replicated in another park and today, learnings are integrated in industrial park trainings.