Charity Insights

For blog #3, I wanted to talk about an graph or visualisation I’ve been working on, to help CDP display their data in a new way. It’s called a chord diagram, looks a bit like a spider’s web and is used to show the strength and range of interconnections in whatever system you are looking at, for example the total imports and exports between different countries (PLEASE click for interactive version-much more fun!). Source: http://www.delimited.io/2014/11/18/interactive-chord-diagrams-in-d3.

 

In short, segments around the edge of the circle represent components of the system you are looking at, in this case countries, lines that link two segments indicate a relationship between the segments, in this case a trade relationship, and the width of the lines shows the strength of the relationship, in this example the total imports and exports between countries.

So how is that applicable to CDP? In the CDP water questionnaire that goes out to the world’s biggest companies, one of the questions CDP asks of the responders is to identify the impacts and risks that water issues have or could have on their business. For example, a company might say that water scarcity in the region where they work has led to an increase in water prices and hence operating costs or that flooding has caused damage to one of their facilities. Companies identify a cause, the effect and how they have or will respond. It is important for CDP to understand the links that companies are making between these 3 elements, as this can make it clear why companies are feeling effects and how they are approaching impacts and risk. By understanding this, CDP can highlight good practice and propose ways in which companies can improve their water policy. And hence, we can use chord diagrams to illustrate the links that companies are making between cause and effect and risk and response.

By using this diagram, hopefully readers of CDP’s Global Water Report or visitors to the water results website can get a quick snapshot of the data and digest the statistics in a unique way that can capture the attention and resonate more than numbers would.

So I used my limited programming expertise I use in my PhD work at Imperial to make a little program that counts the links between cause and effect and risk and response, then put the results into a matrix, something that excel unfortunately can’t do with CDPs’ data. Then I found a makeshift excel workbook (try it yourself) that you can input your data into to make a very basic ‘my first chord diagram’. This was used as a proof of concept, to show what the diagrams can do. Hopefully we can go from my less-good looking excel version, to swanky interactive versions like these:

Visualising the composition of a computer program code (goes over my head but the interactivity is really good)

Uber journeys in San Francisco

SO COOL!

The feedback on the diagrams was really good, and they have been shared with other teams within CDP and could potentially be used with other data!

So I guess for prospective internship applicants I would say try to bring in your expertise to do things in a new way if possible, benefiting your organisation whilst also showing them what you can do. Don’t be afraid to give feedback about how things are done, I think a lot of organisations will appreciate an outside perspective. That has definitely been the case here at CDP, where everyone has supported suggestions and ideas.

Read CDP Blog #3: Chord Diagrams! in full

In this blog I thought would write a bit more about the background of why I came to choose the CDP water team for my Charity Insights internship and how CDP communicates its work, as I think this is one of the most vital elements to its output and an area I imagine a lot of people could be interested in working in.

So first off, why do I think water is so important?

This year, the World Economic Forum listed water crises as the biggest Global Risk in terms of impact, based on a survey of nearly 900 global leaders in business, academia, and government. Future water issues are seen to have a more significant potential impact than failure of climate change adaptation, economic crises, weapons of mass destruction and infectious disease. See this article for further on the results of the WEF report. 10 years ago, water risks barely registered on the WEF risk report, but over the last few years, has unfortunately steadily climbed to the top as awareness has increased.

So what’s going on with water? I think the problem is perception and awareness. It appears that a lot of people and companies perceive water as an unlimited resource and/or are unaware of how much water is used and embedded in everyday processes and products.  But fortunately that perception is changing and awareness is growing. I was definitely unaware until recently and still am learning all the time about our relationship with water and how important it is. It might seem obvious that water is essential to live, but I was really clueless about the wider facts and want to try and express some of them here.

The truth is freshwater is a finite resource, and unfortunately as with a lot of other resources, human activity is depleting the supply faster than it can be replenished, with water reserves in 21 out of 37 of the largest underground global aquifers decreasing since 2003. Industry and agriculture has also been responsible for polluting the water supply to the point where it is no longer fit for human consumption, as in China where almost 1/3 of surface water and over 2/3 of underground supplies are unsuitable for humans. Finally I want to note that water is also often a cross-border issue. For example the building of Dams across the Euphrates river in southern Turkey is leading to increased water scarcity and raising tensions in neighbouring Iraq, who heavily rely on the water from the Euphrates flowing across the border. It is conflicts like this that lead to a lot of diplomats, writers, politicians and economists predicting that wars in this century to be fought over the precious resource of water, not for oil or conquest.

This does not look encouraging when combined with the effects of Climate Change that are increasing the frequency and severity of droughts and so I think it is essential to act. That’s why it’s been so exciting seeing the inner workings of CDP, where everyone is focused on getting companies to act in the best interests of the people and the results are definitely encouraging.

 

A big part of the work done at CDP is communications or ‘comms’. The comms team works on ways to put across the work done at CDP to the media, the public, investors and companies. The team will help shape the annual reports CDP writes, as well as produce press releases and encourage media uptake of the stories that come out of the reports, showing where and how companies are responding (or not) to the issues of water, climate change and deforestation. CDP deals with a huge amount of data so delivering these messages in a concise yet meaningful way requires ingenuity to attract attention and generate impetus to make other companies act. In that vein, the role of the investor team at CDP is to reach out to investors who have significant stakes in these companies, and try and get them on board with CDP, to further encourage companies to shift attitudes and take actions against the dangers faced.

I would recommend looking the CDP website for some really interesting information about company commitments in the run up to the Paris climate change conference in December; data and graphics, visiting the twitter to see some of the output of the comms team and links to other articles, as well as the reports.

 

And now a final thought about how much water is ’embedded’ (used in the production of) our everyday products (see this link from national geographic for more). I’d just like to highlight the massive impact of meat production on the environment, with a kilo of beef requiring a staggering 15,000 litres of water to produce, 1kg of pork requiring 4,800 litres whilst crops like wheat require relatively little, at 1,100 litres of water per kilo. I think that’s worth thinking about that next time there’s a choice between weetabix and a bacon butty for breakfast.

Read Why Water? And Comms at CDP in full

After a couple of weeks here at CDP I thought it was about time to give a summary of the work done by CDP and what I’ve been up to since the start of July.

CDP (previously known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) are a global environmental non-profit organisation, whose goal is to increase transparency of environmental effects of companies and change the behaviours of companies for the better in three key areas: Carbon emissions, Water usage and Deforestation. CDP do this by asking companies to perform self assessments and disclose emissions and usage data by responding to CDP’s annual questionnaires on Water, Climate Change and Deforestation. During my internship I am working in the Water team, a small core team of 4 permanent staff where the focus currently is the production of this years ‘Global Water Report’, which summarises the results of the water questionnaire companies have responded to. My role is to write case studies on companies responses to different questions, finding the companies that have demonstrated the ‘best practice’ in terms of their awareness and response to water related issues, as well as (try to) make cool graphs and think about interesting ways to represent the vast amount of data that has been collected over the last 5 years of the water program. The first iteration of the CDP Water website, illustrating the results from last year’s report can be found here: http://globalwaterresults.cdp.net/

 

Screenshot image of the CDP water results site (link above).

CDP is able to gain responses from the biggest companies in the world such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Volkswagen because it has the backing of several hundred investors who hold trillions of dollars in assets. Money talks and the hope is that companies will change their ways a lot quicker when responding to the requests of investors. Personally, I wish that the impetus for change wasn’t the fear of economic losses but rather the social and environmental benefit to the world. However the truth is that a large proportion of companies are simply unaware of the environmental risks they face and the damages they can and do cause, and often responding to CDP, even if only because of a direct request from investors, is a first step along the journey towards sustainable development. This is a very different kind of environmental organisation to those I have been used to seeing on the news such as Greenpeace. The approach here is much more of a friendly coercion of companies when compared to the the more confrontational approach we see more often in the headlines. I believe both approaches have their own merits. There is a clear desire here to build momentum in the run up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris this December. With the 2015 Global Water report launching in October, CDP has the opportunity to show that progress as well as the intent to use water responsibly and sustainably exists in the corporate world and that CDP can guide those companies who may be lagging behind towards sustainability.

Something that is immediately clear here at CDP is that the people are genuinely passionate and believe in their work which is breeds a productive and spirited atmosphere. Other first impressions are that this is a very welcoming, friendly and collaborative workplace, with lots of small teams often working together, blurring the lines of segregation between departments which is pleasant to be a part of. The office is located next to St. Katharine Docks near Tower Bridge, which is a lovely place to work and not too bad to commute to from South East London, as it is 10 minute walk from Wapping on the Overground. There are also several Imperial alumni here, most of whom graduated through the Masters in Environmental Technology, which is good for networking if you’re into that kind of thing.

(Image from  http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/3876714-st-katharine-docks)

The CDP office is one of the tall buildings to the right of centre in the background.

Over the next few weeks I will continue to work on case studies and learn more about the structure of this years report as well as some of the other operations of the organisation. I’ll keep you updated in further posts as well as explaining a bit more about the importance of water (cue cool infographics).

Nathan

Read CDP- Introduction and first days in full