By 
Those of you who think we have it bad with the tap water here in San Francisco might think twice after attending one of the more
thought provoking sessions at the 2007 BSR (Business for Social Responsibility) Conference here in San Francisco. The panel of John Frazier, Director of Considered Chemistry and Environment for Nike; Pascale Guiffant with the SUEZ company; and Chris Jochnick director at Oxfam, led the environmental session “Green Human Rights: Do Water and Climate Count?” and brought about Paul Hawken-esque issues about water rights tied with human rights.
Oil seems to be on everyone’s mind but good old H2O might be more of a future issue. Even those waiting for the ice caps to melt might think twice when seeing how much corporations pollute that water. The panel tied together ideas how human rights and climate change can be tied to water. Even now the UN only recently started to realize that water can be recognized as a human issue. One problem is that most of the private sector doesn’t cover the local populations’ right to a healthy environment.
We applaud Frazier’s opinion that Nike should talk more about what
they are doing on the environmental side as opposed to how to dunk a basketball. Nike has their new Green shoe and they continue to work on a “Considered Index” that will measure the VOCs and other harmful elements in their shoes. Nike, which used to be a poster child for non-Green companies, seems to be taking a Green Shaq size step forward. We say, “Just Green It.”
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Keith is a editor of Greenerati.com
