World Water Day - Making every drop count!

Boehringer Ingelheim started a new Making More Health project with the objective to ensure the water supply for dog shelters in Mexico.

Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany, March 22, 2019 – Around the world, people are struggling for access to clean drinking water. One trouble spot is Mexico City. To meet the needs of the 21 million citizens, Mexico City’s Water Department drains so much Water from the aquifer that the water table drops and at the same time the city does – up to 30 cm every year. Today, at the World Water Day, the UN raises awareness for the human right to water and mobilizes to tackle the world water issue. But what about man’s best friend? For many dogs in shelters, the supply with water cannot be guaranteed. To address this problem Boehringer Ingelheim started a project thru its initiative Making More Health with the objective to ensure the water supply for dog shelters in Mexico. 

In order to preserve the aquifer, the project team installed the first rainwater collectors and filters. Alone a single system captures and filters 180,000 liters of rainwater every year. The benefit for the environment and the community is big. “Besides a better quality of life for the dogs in these centers, the water payment expenses as well as the physical effort using the automatic distribution system could be reduced significantly”, said Fabiola Negrete, Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico.    

Mexico has the highest number of stray dogs in all of Latin America. In some places of Mexico City, they outnumber the people; millions of them roam through the streets. A lot of stray dogs end up in a shelter to prevent more being born and reduce the diseases caused by them.  While many of the Mexico City’s inhabitants are only able to turn on the tap for water a couple days a week because the other days the pipe is dry, the water supply for the dogs in these centers is even less secure. 
To counteract this, the project team around Fabiola Negrete, Itzel Antonio y Octavio Apolinar, came up with the rainwater-collecting project as part of the “Bag to the future” competition conducted by the Making More Health Initiative of Boehringer Ingelheim. 

“This is a great example how simple actions can have a strong impact. Connecting ideas, we could create collaboration circles and with one single dissemination campaign we were able to promote sterilization and adoption of a shelter dog”, says Manuela Pastore, manager of Making More Health at Boehringer Ingelheim.

The Boehringer Ingelheim long-term and global initiative Making More Health (MMH) aims to create a healthier world for human, animals and their communities. By supporting social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurial thinking, MMH is looking for innovative solutions, which create social impact. Bag to the future is a competition to activate Boehringer Ingelheim employees to develop creative solutions for a specific problem and put their idea into action. 
Boehringer Ingelheim supports the eight winning teams with financial resources as well as a consulting mentor and recommendations from the jury. 

Boehringer Ingelheim
Improving the health and quality of life of patients is the goal of the research-driven pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The focus in doing so is on diseases for which no satisfactory treatment option exists to date. The company therefore concentrates on developing innovative therapies that can extend patients’ lives. In animal health, Boehringer Ingelheim stands for advanced prevention. 

Family-owned since it was established in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s top 20 companies. Some 50,000 employees create value through innovation daily for the three business areas human pharmaceuticals, animal health and biopharmaceuticals. 
In 2017, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of nearly 18.1 billion euros. R&D expenditure, exceeding three billion euros, corresponded to 17.0 per cent of net sales. 

As a family-owned company, Boehringer Ingelheim plans in generations and focuses on long-term success. The company therefore aims at organic growth from its own resources with simultaneous openness to partnerships and strategic alliances in research. In everything it does, Boehringer Ingelheim naturally adopts responsibility towards mankind and the environment. 

More information about Boehringer Ingelheim can be found on www.boehringer-ingelheim.com or in our annual report: http://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com.

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Making More Health 
Making More Health (MMH) is a global initiative by the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim in cooperation with Ashoka, a non-governmental organization. Aiming to improve health for humans, animals and communities worldwide Making More Health pursues a multitude of approaches to finding solutions and tailoring these solutions to specific projects. 
“By supporting and connecting social entrepreneurs in the healthcare industry, Boehringer Ingelheim seeks to have an impact on improving health beyond its core business. We do not want to limit ourselves to linear approaches to solutions. 
Making More Health also plays a very significant role within the company. We want to show our employees how important it is to be dedicated to social issues because it fosters new ways of thinking beyond traditional approaches,” explains Manuela Pastore, manager of Making More Health at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Boehringer Ingelheim employees can become involved in Making More Health in a variety of ways. With the MMH Executive in Residence Program, Boehringer Ingelheim employees go on location to support the projects of social entrepreneurs. The MMH Youth Venture Program supports the next generation in developing solutions for the healthcare industry, thereby encouraging social entrepreneurship and action.