By Jennifer Farrington, Senior Director of BD Social Investing and Vice President of the BD Foundation and Sarah Hill, Director of BD Sustainability

Did you know that today, 2.1 billion people live without safe drinking water at home, which can affect their health, education and livelihoods?¹

We recognize that water scarcity and water quality issues are impediments to our ultimate goal of advancing the world of health, because clean water plays a critical role in healthcare. Damaged ecosystems and extreme weather events can affect the quantity and quality of water available for human consumption.

That’s why, as part of ongoing progress towards our environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy and efforts to achieve our 2030+ goals to ensure a healthy planet, in 2021 we set a target to reduce our water consumption by 40% (normalized to COPS) from a 2019 baseline.

Bringing safe drinking water to communities worldwide

But we are not solely focused on direct water usage; we care about improving access to clean water in communities around the world. Over the past four years, philanthropic investments from BD, together with the support of BD volunteers, have helped our NGO partner, Planet Water, install 8 water towers which have brought clean drinking water and hygiene education to more than 14,400 people in Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.  Since its founding in 2013, Planet Water has worked with corporate partners like BD to bring safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education to more than 1,500 communities, worldwide.

To celebrate World Water Day on March 22, we are issuing a grant to the Planet Water Foundation to support its work to bring clean drinking water and sanitation education to communities that need it most.