#1 Site Selection Criteria – Ample Availability of Water?

I have been reading about more and more locations like Georgia running out of drinking water because of drought conditions and I wanted to learn more about Ohio's fresh water supply. I recently spoke to Linda Abraham-Silver, executive director of the Great Lakes Science Center, regarding the topic and found the conversation very interesting.

Linda indicated that water is a natural resource more precious than oil as it is required for life. If water is the "new oil," then Ohio is the new equivalent of Saudi Arabia. Ohio has access to the world's second largest supply of fresh water, roughly 20 percent of all the fresh water on the planet. This is going to be an amazingly important competitive advantage for Ohio's economy as demand for fresh water increases globally.

Do you currently view water supply as an important site selection factor?
What other non-traditional criteria are part of your decision process?
Let me know what you think.

She went on to say that if a company requires a reliable supply of fresh water to operate, Ohio will be an extremely attractive choice. As demand on a location's fresh water supply grows, the frequency of mandated restrictions on that water would increase. A natural assumption is that the cost of that water would increase as well. It is not hard to imagine the costs associated with accessing fresh water will become an important expense line item that would depress profits.

So as companies are looking to make capital investment decisions, it will be important to consider the impact of a location’s water supply.

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• Published under Ohio Business Climate Improvement