Growing Blue

Urban, domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors worldwide are competing for increasingly limited water supplies. Communities are being forced to reconsider the future of their economic and population growth. Currently, 2.5 billion people live in water-stressed regions, while more than 20 percent of the global GDP is already produced in risky, water-scarce areas.

Water is considered one of the most critical factors in determining how and at what pace our world can support humanity's continued growth. GrowingBlue.com examines these issues, while providing real intelligence on more effectively managing this uniquely vital resource.

The website consists of three primary sections:

• The Growing Blue Tool—A one-of-a-kind summary of the current state of water in 180 countries, which translates complex data into a series of animated maps and benchmarks.
• 2050 Scenarios—Presents different economic, social, and environmental scenarios that communities and companies worldwide could face in 2050 based on current water practices.
• Implications of Growth—A candid, data-driven assessment of water's economic, environmental and social impact that includes real-world examples of the costs, trade-offs and potential solutions to a variety of water challenges.

"What Growing Blue does is put the economic importance of water center stage, and by doing so makes the case for the kind of smart investment in infrastructure that is going to both protect the environment and support local economic improvements in the long term."- Christopher Gasson, publisher of Global Water Intelligence