The Water Resilience Coalition and the World Economic Forum’s Water Futures Community Join Forces to Accelerate Business Action for Global Water Resilience

Collaboration mobilizes Fortune 200 leadership and global dialogue to transform water challenges into competitive advantage

Davos, Switzerland, January 13, 2026 – The Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) and the World Economic Forum today announced a strategic memorandum of understanding to mobilize business leadership and dialogue toward urgent water challenges facing communities and economies worldwide.

The WRC is an initiative of the CEO Water Mandate, a partnership between the Pacific Institute and the United Nations Global Compact, co-chaired by Ecolab.

The agreement brings together the WRC’s 40 member companies—representing $5 trillion in combined market value—with the World Economic Forum’s unmatched global dialogue platform. Together, the organizations will mobilize more partners and multi-stakeholder actors with a priority to drive basin-level collaborations and shape thought leadership in alignment with SDG6 and global goals for the 2030 Agenda.

Water scarcity currently impacts 3.6 billion people globally and threatens critical business operations across multiple sectors. Companies increasingly recognize that water resilience is a driver of tangible business value through operational efficiency, risk mitigation, market access, stakeholder confidence and resilient communities.

The collaboration will focus on four integrated pillars:

  • Elevate water resilience on global agendas.
  • Engage and mobilize business leaders and companies.
  • Support collective, basin-level action.
  • Advance thought leadership.

“Leading companies are reframing water from risk to opportunity. Water resilience drives operational efficiency, opens new markets, and strengthens community relationships and ecosystems. This collaboration ensures business leaders have the platforms, tools, and collective action models to turn water stewardship into measurable business value.”
Matt Kistler, CEO – Water Resilience Coalition

“The water crises of too little, too much and too polluted water must move from a siloed risk to a strategic systems priority for business leaders,” said Tania Strauss, Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum. “The Forum’s platform for dialogue for multistakeholder and market-led cooperation, together with the Water Resilience Coalition agenda on 100 priority basins, will create an opportunity to embed water resilience into the core of how companies create long-term value in an increasingly volatile world.”
Tania Strauss, Member of the Executive Committee – World Economic Forum

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About the Water Resilience Coalition

The Water Resilience Coalition is an industry-driven, CEO-led initiative of the CEO Water Mandate, a partnership between the UN Global Compact and the Pacific Institute. The initiative brings together 40+ leading companies representing $5 trillion in combined market value to advance water security in 100+ priority basins globally. Co-chaired by Ecolab, the WRC drives collective action that delivers measurable business value while strengthening community water resilience. Learn more at https://ceowatermandate.org/resilience/.

About the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum provides a global, impartial, not-for-profit platform and insights to support meaningful connections between political, business, academic, civil society and other leaders. Learn more at www.weforum.org.

About the Pacific Institute

Founded in 1987, the Pacific Institute is a global water think tank that combines science-based thought leadership with active outreach to influence local, national, and international efforts in developing sustainable water policies. From working with Fortune 500 companies to frontline communities, our mission is to create and advance solutions to the world’s most pressing water challenges. Since 2009, the Pacific Institute has also acted as co-secretariat for the CEO Water Mandate, a global commitment platform that mobilizes a critical mass of business leaders to address global water challenges through corporate water stewardship. For more information, visit pacinst.org.

About the UN Global Compact

The ambition of the UN Global Compact is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the SDGs through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 20,000 participating companies, 5 Regional Hubs, 66 Country Networks covering 85 countries and 9 Country Managers establishing Networks in 16 other countries, the UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world. For more information, reach out to unglobalcompact.org, follow @globalcompact on social media and visit our website at unglobalcompact.org

author avatar
CEO Water Mandate
The Mandate is a commitment platform for business leaders and learners to advance water stewardship. Endorsing companies commit to action across six key elements and report annually on progress. The Mandate Secretariat - a partnership between the UN Global Compact and Pacific Institute - supports the initiative’s mission and endorsing companies in many ways, including: (1) developing research, guidance, and tools that advance corporate water stewardship, (2) convening multi-stakeholder events to identify, explore, and solve key water challenges, and (3) facilitating meaningful collective action to improve conditions in at-risk river basins around the world.