New global community program expands Cummins’ focus on the global water crisis

Today, Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) announced a new global community program called Cummins Water Works, which addresses the global water crisis by partnering with leading water experts and investing and engaging in sustainable, large-scale, high-impact water projects around the world. This new community program is supported initially by $8 million in Cummins grants focusing on five of the most water-stressed countries: Mexico, Brazil, India, South Africa and the U.S. By 2025, Cummins Water Works will bring fresh water to 20 million people who would not otherwise have access to it, while striving to produce net water benefits that exceed Cummins’ annual water use in all Cummins regions by 2030, and in all Cummins communities by 2050.

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Cummins employees working on the Monsoon Resilient Maharashtra project in Maharashtra, India (Photo: Business Wire)

Today, 785 million people – one in nine – lack access to safe water. And, by 2050, at least one in four people will likely live in a country affected by chronic or recurring water shortages.

“The water crisis affects so many issues that are important to us in our communities, including health, education, gender equity, and economic opportunity,” explained Mary Chandler, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations at Cummins. “We are working to address climate change across all aspects of the company – improving our operations, developing new products and working closely with our customers and suppliers. In our communities, we are working to address one of the primary effects of climate change, namely water stress, through Cummins Water Works.”

“Addressing a crisis of this magnitude requires collective action,” said André Villaça Ramalho with the Water Resilience Coalition, a United Nations-sanctioned working group of which Cummins is a member. “We are excited that Cummins has joined our efforts, and we have been impressed by how Cummins consistently matches words with action when it comes to sustainability.”

Joining the Water Resilience Coalition connects Cummins with water-related non-profit organizations and more than a dozen major global companies focused collectively on analyzing, prioritizing, implementing, and managing high-impact water projects in major water-stressed regions around the world.

Cummins is launching its new community program through partnerships with two global nonprofit organizations, The Nature Conservancy and Water.org. Initial and projected projects include working with The Nature Conservancy to help plan and engage in projects in Brazil, the U.S. and India that are primarily focused upstream on improving, repairing, and strengthening primary water sources on which communities are dependent. Working with Water.org, Cummins will help plan and engage in projects in Mexico, Brazil, and India that are primarily focused downstream, on improving water cost, quality, and availability in communities.

Cummins Water Works is a critical piece of the company’s ongoing commitments to sustainability and addressing climate change. For decades, Cummins employees around the world have worked on water solutions in their communities like the Monsoon Resilient Maharashtra project in India to help local communities devise ways to be less vulnerable to and less reliant on monsoons for their water and agricultural needs. To date, Cummins water projects have generated more than four billion gallons in annual water benefits to communities around the word. And, through PLANET 2050, Cummins’ environmental sustainability strategy, the company has reduced its own direct water usage by almost 30% and 16 of its sites globally have been validated as water neutral. Focusing on water sustainability through Cummins Water Works presents an important opportunity to make an additional positive environmental impact in communities.

Facts about water crises from Water.org

A health crisis: Better water, sanitation, and hygiene could save the lives of 297,000 children under the age of five each year. Nearly one million people die annually from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related diseases.

A women’s crisis: Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the water crisis, as they are often responsible for collecting water. Women and girls spend 200 million hours every day collecting water.

A children’s and education crisis: Children responsible for collecting water for their families cannot reliably attend school. More generally, one in three schools lack access to basic water and sanitation, which negatively affects children and their ability to learn.

An economic crisis: Time spent gathering water or seeking safe sanitation accounts for billions in lost economic opportunities. An estimated $260 billion is lost globally each year due to lack of basic water and sanitation.

About Cummins

Cummins Inc., a global power leader, is a corporation of complementary business segments that design, manufacture, distribute and service a broad portfolio of power solutions. The company’s products range from diesel, natural gas, electric and hybrid powertrains and powertrain-related components including filtration, aftertreatment, turbochargers, fuel systems, controls systems, air handling systems, automated transmissions, electric power generation systems, batteries, electrified power systems, hydrogen generation and fuel cell products. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana (U.S.), since its founding in 1919, Cummins employs approximately 57,800 people committed to powering a more prosperous world through three global corporate responsibility priorities critical to healthy communities: education, environment and equality of opportunity. Cummins serves its customers online, through a network of company-owned and independent distributor locations, and through thousands of dealer locations worldwide and earned about $1.8 billion on sales of $19.8 billion in 2020. Learn more at cummins.com.

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