Issues We Work On
Corporate Water Stewardship
Companies around the world increasingly recognize the risk that water scarcity, pollution, and weak water governance have to their core business. They are beginning to acknowledge the need to manage water as a key input to production and better address the ways in which their water use and wastewater discharge can affect nearby ecosystems and communities. Indeed, some companies have already felt the effects of the global water crisis on their business, whether it be by losing their license to operate due to inequitable or unsustainable practices, stalling operations due to a lack of water or the failure of water-dependent energy sources, or a variety of other water-related business challenges. Furthermore, investors, government agencies, and NGOs all have increased expectations for corporate sustainability around water issues. Perhaps even more importantly to business, consumers are increasingly considering companies’ water sustainability performance in their purchasing decisions.
Corporate water stewardship is an approach that allows companies to identify and manage water-related business risks, understand and mitigate their adverse impacts on ecosystems and communities, and contribute to and help enable more sustainable management of shared freshwater resources. Stewardship is rooted in the concept that robust and effective public water governance is critical to the long-term business viability of water-intensive industries and that companies can play a role in helping to achieve this end. As such, stewardship approaches result in companies improving water efficiency within their own operations, encouraging good practice throughout their supply chain, and collaborating with others to advance sustainable water management.
Corporate Water Stewardship Tools