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[00:10.64] However, many companies say they want to be more responsible about the freshwater they use.

[00:18.41] Drought, floods and extreme weather also threaten their supply chains.

[00:25.89] The nonprofit environmental group Ceres ranked 72 companies for their sustainability efforts.

[00:34.18] Ceres said few of the businesses are close to reaching the 2030 goals set by the group, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

[00:45.40] Last year, Ceres launched an effort to push companies with large water usage to protect water resources.

[00:54.50] Recently, the group released a study that included the corporations Coca-Cola, General Mills and Amazon.

[01:04.39] “There’s no doubt that companies need to do better,” said Kirsten James.

[01:10.01] She is a program director for water at Ceres.

[01:15.09] Ceres said the companies were chosen from four industries based on their size and use of water.

[01:23.37] They were ranked based on several factors, including promises to protect the amount and quality of the water they use, as well as the environments that supply it.

[01:35.68] They were also tested on whether they helped improve access to water and sanitation in communities where they do business.

[01:45.02] Ceres used publicly available information, including information the companies provided to the government through March.

[01:55.73] None of the companies scored above 70 percent of the points available.

[02:01.84] Some were considered to be on track to meet the goals set by the nonprofit group, with scores of at least 50 percent.

[02:11.19] Coca-Cola said its water use in 2022 was 10 percent more efficient compared to 2015.

[02:20.28] The company said it hopes to have 100 percent circular water use.

[02:25.91] That is where all water is used and returned to the watersheds it has been drawn from.

[02:33.93] But the company did not say how likely it was to reach that target, nor how much progress it has made.

[02:42.22] Coca-Cola also said producing its products does not use as much water as growing what goes into the products it sells.

[02:52.89] “The agricultural ingredients that we use use vastly more water to produce than the actual manufacturing process,” said Michael Goltzman.

[03:04.36] He is vice president of Coca Cola and a sustainability head.

[03:11.30] Reports say technology companies, like Amazon and Apple, use a lot of water to cool the computers in their large data centers.

[03:22.26] The Ceres study rated both companies below 20 percent progress toward the nonprofit's targets.

[03:30.79] Food company General Mills was among the companies closest to meeting the 2030 targets, at 65 percent.

[03:40.65] Mary Jane Melendez is the company's chief sustainability officer.

[03:46.25] She said 85 percent of the company's water use is in agriculture.

[03:52.67] Extreme weather in the U.S. has reportedly affected the company in recent years.

[04:00.95] Melendez gave examples of weather-related problems.

[04:04.68] She said freezing and thawing hurt the company’s supply of sugar beets. She also said drought affected its oats supply.

[04:17.22] Michael Kiparsky is director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

[04:25.23] He said that corporations have an interest in protecting their operations from water shortages.

[04:36.97] That could push them to make bigger steps to protect freshwater resources.

[04:39.91] Kiparsky pointed out there is no way to enforce Ceres’ targets.

[04:45.26] But he asked, “Does money talk?

[04:48.20] When it talks, it talks pretty loud," he said.