Completed projects
Projects in 2009
Assessment of technology for arsenic-free water in Bangladesh
In June 2009 EMF published an assessment of the available technology for removing arsenic from well water in Bangladesh. The report was compiled by Dorota Juchniewicz as part of her Master's thesis in chemical engineering at Grenoble University in France.
The study was supervised by EMF chairman Allerd Stikker. EMF collaborates with the Clean Water Foundation, a US foundation dedicated to producing clean drinking water from the contaminated supply currently available to 49 million people in Bangladesh. The study found the technology developed by Voltea, a Venture company of Unilever Ventures, to be the most reliable and versatile technique to date.
Entrepreneurial model for the provision of arsenic-free drinking water
Development of an entrepreneurial model for the provision of arsenic free drinking water in rural areas of Bangladesh.
Partners: Clean Water Foundation and Safe Water Network in the USA.
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Projects 2003–2008
Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC)
EMF, ARC and IRC organized a workshop on water, sanitation and hygiene at faith schools that was held at Sarum College in Salisbury, United Kingdom, from 5 to 7 July 2009.
The object of the workshop was to produce an engaging and inspiring publication entitled: Faith in Water: A Guide to Ideas, Inspiration, Stories and Action. Participants submitted papers outlining what water meant within the context of their respective faith traditions and religious schools, which formed the initial sections of the book. The rest of the publication captured the ideas, conversations and inspiration of the two-day event.
Micro Water Facility
EMF launched the Micro Water Facility (MWF) to broker between water technology inventors, NGOs, financial institutions, donors and local communities in developing countries, introducing small scale drinking water and sanitation water techniques for the poor. MWF was formally established as a not-for-profit foundation in August 2007.
MWF was set up in close collaboration with AquaForAll, Aidenvironment, the Adessium Foundation and the Entrepreneur Fund.
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Memstill
From 1995 to 2005 EMF worked on the Memstill desalination technology, based on membrane distillation, with the following consortium.
In 2007 the Keppel Group in Singapore and Aquastill in The Netherlands started preparations for commercialisation.
Documentaries 2000–2008
EMF 's involvement with documentary filmmaking started with an initative in 1999 to develop a 6-part international documentary on water problems and solutions Water, The Drop Of Life. The first full-length screeening took place at the start of the World Water Forum and ministerial conference in the Hague in 2000. Meanmwhile, the documentary has been shown in 60 countries, including the United States where it was broadcast by Public Broadcasting Systems.
TV documentary series
Since then EMF has continued to explore and initiate documentaries in the field of water, poverty and mictrofinance, in cooperation with professional filmmakers. This resulted in four 6-part TV documentary series on water issues in developing countri
es:
- A Drop of Life (2000)
- A Dollar a Day (2005)
- Private Sector Projects in Developing Countries (2005)
- Blue Gold (2008)
Participating organisations included Vitens, Rabobank Foundation, TNT, Friesland Foods, Unilever, Heineken, SNS Water Fund, Waterschapsbank, and DOB Foundation.
The Blue Gold
In 2009 'Het Blauwe Goud' (The Blue Gold), on problems and solutions on freshwater shortages in the developing world, was broadcasted on Dutch TV by NCRV. Besides initiating this series, EMF also selected the projects that were featured and conducted an extensive interview with Crown-Prince Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands.
HandsOn Microkrediet
December 2006 saw the launch of HandsOn Microkrediet Nederland and HandsOn Microkrediet Amsterdam, an initiative of the Ecological Management Foundation and Carnac.
Projects 1999–2003
CEO Panel for Industry and Water at the World Water Fora in The Hague (2000) and Kyoto (2003).
Partners: Unilever, Suez, Veolia, Thames Water, Heineken, Nuon, ITT, Rabobank, CH2MHill, Royal Haskoning and 3 Japanese Companies.
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Projects 1996–2005
Development of a new ecologically acceptable and economically sound technology for desalination of brackish and salt water.
Partners: TNO, Heineken, Evides, E.On, Waternet (formerly Gemeentelijk Waterleiding Bedrijf Amsterdam, GWA), Seghers Keppel and Technical University Twente.
Projects 1992–1993
Development of Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI) for corporations.
Partners: Coopers & Lybrand, Nuon and AKZO.
Projects 1992–1993
Development of a blue print for introducing environmental criteria in credit rating procedures for banks and environmental performance of the banks themselves.
Partners: ING Bank and TNO
Sustainable Management
When EMF started up in the early 1990s, it mounted two programs to alert the business world to its involvement with sustainable development.
Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI)
Working in cooperation with Environmental Management Consultants Group of Coopers & Lybrand, in 1993 EMF launched a program that introduced Dutch industry to Environmental Performance Indications, based on the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI) in Washington in 1992.
EMF and Coopers & Lybrand published three articles on the subject in 1994.
The current outcome of this programme and subsequent Initiatives outside EMF can be traced at:
www.globalreporting.org
www.epifinance.com
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/consult/envrp/general/pdf/05.pdf
www.xlp.com/article.asp?pass_article=904
www.vnci.nl/
Environmental Performance for Banks
Inspired by publications by NatWest in the late 1980s and EMF's visits to NatWest, EMF approached the major banks in The Netherlands to draw their attention to the need to include environmental performance in their credit rating systems.
EMF's chairman published an extensive article on the subject in the1991 December issue of the Dutch Magazine Bankers'and Traders' Association.A subsequent blueprint on how to include environmental issues in credit rating systems was drawn up by ING Bank in cooperation with EMF, Coopers & Lybrand Financial Services and TNO.Although unprecedented at the time, nowadays all the major banks have implemented environmental procedures which are extensively documented in their annual reports.
Blog
On May 12th the first Sujol plant was opened officially. This plant produces 200 liters an hours. The water quality is within Bangladeshi standards. The plant reduces Salinity up till 97% and Arsenic from 370 ppm to 30 ppm. Sujol water taste nearly as good as mineral water and beats the taste of water treated by comparable alternatives easily.
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