Beverage company creates app to help suppliers save water

Innocent Drinks' app calculates the best time for strawberry farmers in Spain to irrigate their fields.

We recently saw an initiative offer healthcare discounts to farmers if they refrain from logging the forest. In a similar vein, Innocent Drinks has developed an app to encourage farmers to save water, and will hold workshops to explain the costs they can save from resource optimization and conservation.

The Irri-Fresa app was developed in response to water conservation problems facing the company’s strawberry suppliers in Spain. Most of these farms are located next to the world heritage Doñana national park, an ecologically important wetlands area, and the farms were using up to half of the water that the park needed. The app helps farmers save nearly two billion liters of water per year. Working in partnership with the University of Cordoba, farmers are testing versions of short pulse irrigation and have already reduced their water use by up to 40 percent.

Innocent Drinks, a winner of the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards this year, is a relatively small buyer, so the team is now trying to expand its approach and has contacted larger companies such as M&S, Sainsbury’s and Coca-Cola, who also buy from the region.

We have also seen a smart, sharing economy water system for farmers. How else can technology help conserve water?