Nicole Kranz
Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin
Conceptualizing the role of business in sustainable water management in developing countries and emerging economies: Observations from South Africa

nicole.kranz@fu-berlin.de

Nicole Kranz is a doctoral student at Freie Universität Berlin and research associate with the project "Fostering Regulation? CSR in Countries with Weak Regulatory Capacity". During her doctoral studies, Nicole was associated with the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and the Water Resources Governance Group at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. Nicole Kranz earned a Diplom degree in Environmental Science from Carolo-Wilhelmina Technical University and a Master degree in Environmental Management and Policy with an emphasis on corporate environmental management from the Bren School at the University of California. Since 2002, Nicole Kranz has been a senior fellow with Ecologic Institute Berlin. In this capacity she has been conducting various research and consulting projects for international clients. Her work covers international water governance, public participation in environmental policy processes as well as corporate responsibility. Before joining Ecologic, she was a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she investigated incentive structures for climate-friendly technologies for the US Congress. She also worked as sustainability consultant for BMW Group DesignworksUSA, overseeing the start-up of the company's sustainability management system. In spring 2006, she was a fellow at Johns Hopkins University, comparing the network structures of the United Nations Global Compact in Germany and the US.

Conceptualizing the role of business in sustainable water management in developing countries and emerging economies: Observations from South Africa

This paper explores the key concepts with regards to the business - water nexus in a developing country/emerging economy context. Building on motivational patterns for corporate actors to engage in responsible behaviour, the paper discusses water-specific drivers and derives possible strategic options and actual contributions with regards to sustainable water management . Three indicative case studies from South Africa are presented in order to demonstrate the actual manifestation of such strategies in concrete business. The paper also indicatively discusses the challenge of policy-making for sustainable water management, potential shortcomings due to a lack of capacity and political will, when it comes to the formulation as well as the implementation of policies fostering adaptive and sustainable water management options.