Finding solutions to water scarcity: Incorporating ecosystem service values into business planning at The Dow Chemical Company's Freeport, TX facility

Water scarcity presents a major risk to businesses, but it can be hard to quantify. Ecosystem service valuation methods may help businesses better understand the financial impacts of water shortages and identify solutions. At The Dow Chemical Company's facility in Freeport, TX, we used natural capital asset valuation to assess the risk from future changes in industrial water supplies. We found that the value of industrial water rights may increase in the future with increased demand but that potential decreases in reliability of water rights due to demand growth and climate change could reduce their value. Using this information, experts identified 16 potential nature-based and collaborative (involving other water users) solutions to future water scarcity. We used multi-criteria analysis to select five of the 16 solutions for further analysis. Two solutions (marsh wastewater treatment, land management) were not cost-competitive and three solutions (reservoir flood pool reallocation/floodplain restoration, irrigation efficiency, municipal rebate program) were cost-competitive with the business-as-usual solution (expanding reservoir storage). However, these solutions have significant technical, legal, and political hurdles. We also found that these solutions provide substantial collective benefits to the public and biodiversity, suggesting that such solutions may be appropriate for implementation via multi-stakeholder collaboration.