The CEO Water Mandate has curated a set of membership opportunities for all Endorsers in 2026, designed to deepen engagement and collective impact.
These opportunities are centered around the Mandate’s three core pillars:
- Facilitate Innovation & Deliver Leading-Edge Thinking
- Scale Responsible Practice & Drive Basin Resilience
- Raise the Profile of Water & Shape the Enabling Environment
They provide a platform for Endorsers to engage with peers and partners in advancing water stewardship. If you haven’t shared your feedback yet, we encourage you to complete this brief survey.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your CEO Water Mandate representative or contact?ceowatermandate@unglobalcompact.org
To-Do List for Members in 2026
We encourage all members to read through this to-do list and support the delivery of CEO Water Mandate strategy.
OUR INITIATIVES
Companies that join the CEO Water Mandate commit to action on six commitment areas and to annual reporting requirements. Within the CEO Water Mandate, two initiatives allow companies to engage more deeply with specific elements of water stewardship and resilience. Endorsers of the CEO Water Mandate can join these groups to further accelerate their water action. Click here for Information on the CEO Water Mandate.
The Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) is the leadership initiative of the CEO Water Mandate and is a CEO-led collective action and leadership group elevating action on mounting water stress to the top of the global corporate agenda. WRC companies commit to achieving Positive Water Impact (PWI) by 2050.
WASH4Work is a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2016 to mobilize business action on water access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in workplace operations, in communities where companies operate, and across supply chains.
Forward Faster is a campaign of the United Nations Global Compact identifying 5 areas of action (including water) selected to accelerate progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and are where the private sector can collectively make the biggest, fastest impact by 2030. To be validated as participants in the UN Global Compact’s Forward Faster – Water Resilience initiative, companies must join the CEO Water Mandate.
Water Resilience Coalition CSOs Advisory Board (CAB) – The CSO Advisory Board guides the direction of the Water Resilience Coalition. CEOs and C-suite members meet quarterly to review progress, map plans, and priorities. To join, you need to be a member of the WRC.
Business Leaders Open Call to Accelerate Action on Water – Launched at the 2023 Water Conference. The Open Call unites companies within your supply chain (including non-UNGC member companies) to drive water resilience in the 100 Priority Basins. Click here to Sign the Open Call.
Click here for a complete Water Action Hub Guide
- Create a Water Action Hub Profile: Visit the Water Action Hub and create an account for your company. The Hub connects water actors to a variety of online resources and allows users to discover possible collaboration opportunities in their area. The Hub is home to a variety of users from around the world from all industry sectors seeking to water security. Creating an account is free of charge.
- Add Basins of interest in the 100 Basins App: Go to the 100 Basins App to enter projects and basins of interest. With the launch of the 100 Priority Basins, Mandate Endorsers must have a Water Action Hub profile. Through the Hub, you’ll be able to access basin diagnostic information, collective action projects, and investment opportunities, and will be notified of basin-level projects in your identified basins of interest. Should you have questions contact Todd Player at tplayer@pacinst.org
The launch of the 100 Priority Basins has begun the process of implementing basin-level Collective Action projects and tracking Impact. The approach includes:
- Establishing the basin’s main issues and mapping key stakeholders
- Setting contextual goals
- Building a roadmap of solutions
- Implementing these solutions
- Measuring progress
If you are interested in joining a collective action, please reach out to your CEO Water Mandate representative or contact ceowatermandate@unglobalcompact.org
In accordance with the UN Global Compact, the 2023 Communication on Progress (CoP) for the Mandate is optional, but we highly encourage your company to review the 2024 Questionnaire in preparation for the 2024 reporting cycle. In 2024, the UNGC is moving toward a more data-driven and less narrative type of CoP and the CEO Water Mandate will make a similar transition in 2025. The reporting requirements for Forward Faster align with the future vision of reporting requirements for the Mandate.
The enhanced CoP enables participating companies of the UN Global Compact to:
- Measure and demonstrate progress to stakeholders and the public on the Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals in a consistent and harmonized way.
- Build credibility and brand value by showing their commitment to the Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Receive insight, learn, and continuously improve performance by identifying gaps, accessing guidance, and setting sustainability goals.
- Compare performance against peers with access to one of the largest sources of free, public, and comparable corporate sustainability data.
You can use the spreadsheet here to support your data collection process with relevant team members and the CoP Data Compilation Checklist here. Use the CoP Guidebook here to get information on how to answer the questions, find calculations, and explore a glossary of key terms to help you complete the CoP questionnaire.
The WASH Self-Assessment Tool is a facility-level Excel-based tool that helps companies assess the level of WASH facilities, help identify gaps in comparison to leading international practices as well as evaluate the implementation every year. It helps companies to measure, set targets, and monitor progress based on the compliance score calculated by the tool for each criterion and thus supports decision-making regarding investment and priority action.
For more information, you can review the WASH Pledge: Guiding Principles. This publication includes a set of guiding principles that will support companies in their efforts to implement WASH at the workplace – an essential first step for businesses supporting global objectives related to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Seeking Participants
The CEO Water Mandate offers tiered visibility and sponsorship packages, including tailored opportunities for SMEs.
We also provide support to strengthen your visibility by offering materials and highlights for your water-related events and speaking engagements.
The CEO Water Mandate will serve as the UN Global Compact Lead for the 2026 UN Water Conference, and we invite you to participate in planning upcoming events by helping map key activities.
If interested or would like more details, reach out to Raquel Ortuno at rortuno@pacinst.org.
The CEO Water Mandate aims to facilitate the uptake of Positive Water Impact (PWI) by offering a structured, tiered approach to support companies along their PWI journey.
- Tier 1: PWI for All – Provides ongoing support with open access to curated resources.
- Tier 2: In-Depth Sessions – Designed for all WRC members and contributing Mandate Endorsers through small-group engagements.
- Tier 3: Individualized Support Contracts – Tailored one-year paid packages covering up to three sites.
- Tier 4: Train-the-Trainer Workshops – Online sessions for consultants and global networks.
Positive Water Impact (PWI) Resources
WATCH Official 2024 Launch: Net Positive Water Impact Guidance Launch
The BioBA Framework provides businesses with standardized guidance for incorporating biodiversity considerations into their water management strategies. It helps water stewardship practitioners estimate and quantify terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity benefits associated with water-related projects.
This initiative seeks 2+ additional corporate partners and participation in pilot testing the BioBA methodology through corporate case studies.
To be considered, reach out to us through?Technical Lead, Dr. Gregg Brill (GBrill@pacinst.org)
Nature-Based Solutions can help capture and store carbon; manage floods, droughts, and extreme weather events; restore watershed and ecosystem health; increase biodiversity; improve agricultural production; and deliver a wide range of socio-economic benefits.
The Pacific Institute and the CEO Water Mandate have partnered with several organizations to scale up and mainstream investments in NBS for watersheds.
Participate in Phase 3, which aims to enhance the functionality and global applicability of the NBS Benefits Explorer Tool through geospatial analyses, expert interfaces, and thematic deep-dive capabilities, with a focus on regenerative agriculture and strategic partnerships.
To be considered, reach out to us through?Technical Lead, Dr. Gregg Brill (GBrill@pacinst.org)
Explore Benefit Accounting of Nature-Based Solutions for Watershed Resources
The Water Resilience Assessment Framework (WRAF) aims to develop a practical framework to support the building and monitoring of water resilience at all levels. The framework was developed through engagement with key stakeholders, leveraging existing resilience-building efforts where available and fostering a shared understanding where differences exist, so that it can be applied by all water users, managers, and decision-makers across all contexts and scales.
Seeking companies to participate in developing sector-specific guidance and scaling thought leadership in collaboration with partners.
To be considered, reach out to Project Lead, Dr. Ashok Chapagain (akchapagain@pacinst.org)
Explore Water Resilience Assessment Framework (WRAF) Resources
The CEO Water Mandate has identified 20+ focus basins out of the 100 priority basins. This engagement is offered at three non-mutually exclusive levels:
- Become a Basin Champion (requires approval)
Basin Champions ignite and scale collective action in priority basins through investment, recruitment, engagement, and advocacy for new or emerging Basin Collaboratives—following the model developed by the Water Resilience Coalition.
- Join a Basin Collaborative (e.g., CWRI, MRWAC, Rio Bravo)
Basin Collaboratives bring together corporates, government, and civil society to address urgent water challenges. Activities include engagement and capacity building, research and innovation, benefit sharing and practical learning, and investments in nature-based solutions—all tracked to demonstrate basin-level impact.
- Participate in a Collective Action Project within a Basin
Activities include identifying the basin’s key issues and stakeholders, setting contextual goals, developing a roadmap of solutions, implementing actions, and measuring progress.
- Join a WASH Collective Action Project
WASH Collective Action Projects enable companies to work together to scale impact on WASH in key geographies.
Current projects include:
- India – Women + Water Collaborative (WaterAid implementing partner)
- Indonesia – (UNICEF implementing partner)
- Bangladesh – (Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor implementing partner)
- Nigeria – (WaterAid implementing partner)
- Mexico – (Global Water Challenge implementing partner)
There is a $1 billion per year financing gap to achieve SDG 6, Water Security and Resilience. Historical philanthropic and public investments alone will not be sufficient, underscoring the need for increased private sector investment.
Innovative private sector investments are already demonstrating accelerated impact and financial returns.
The vision is to position investments as an enabler for scaling up impact, catalyzing innovative investment approaches to close the water financing gap and mobilize $2 billion for water resilience. This calls for a shift in mindset: thinking differently about shared and collective investment goals that companies can jointly pursue.
Support development of new investment partnerships for scale and member engagement, expanding the portfolio of impact investment opportunities for water resilience.
To learn more, contact Cheryl Hicks (cheryl-hicks@pacinst.org).
2025 Launches
The Biodiversity Benefit Accounting Framework aims to provide businesses with standardized guidance on incorporating biodiversity considerations into their water management strategies. It helps water stewardship practitioners estimate or quantify the terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity benefits associated with water-related projects. This is an opportunity to contribute to the strategic direction, content development, and piloting of the framework.
- Biodiversity Benefit Accounting Landscape Assessment: December 2024.
- Biodiversity Benefit Accounting Methodology: August/September 2025 (tentative).
- Explore all Benefit Accounting of Nature-Based Solutions for Watersheds
Description coming soon
Description: Net Positive Water Impact (NPWI) began as an idea at the creation of the WRC. Since then guidance has been drafted to outline the requirements to attain NPWI. Numerous WRC companies have piloted the guidance and framework. In the session, you will hear an update on the guidance, reflections directly from piloting companies, a summary of the feedback, and the next steps.
CEO Water Mandate Endorsers Meetings
The CEO Water Mandate seeks to mobilize a critical mass of business leaders to address global water challenges through corporate water stewardship in partnership with the United Nations, governments, civil society, and other stakeholders.
Open to:?All CEO Water Mandate Endorsers
Time:?2 Sessions – 7 am PT and 3 pm?PT??
Venue:?Online
Description:?The quarterly All CEO Water Mandate Endorsers Meeting is a one-hour session where all endorsing companies convene, and the Mandate team presents relevant updates. It’s an opportunity to actively contribute to the progress of this initiative and engage with fellow endorsers in advancing corporate water stewardship.??
Open to:?All CEO Water Mandate Endorsers?
Venue: In Person during UNGA and a separate virtual date (TBD)
Description:?The quarterly All CEO Water Mandate Endorsers Meeting is a one-hour session where all endorsing companies convene, and the Mandate team presents relevant updates. It’s an opportunity to actively contribute to the progress of this initiative and engage with fellow endorsers in advancing corporate water stewardship.??
To view past meetings, please reach out to your CEO Water Mandate representative or contact ceowatermandate@unglobalcompact.org
Water Resilience Coalition Member Meetings
The Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) is a CEO-led collective action and leadership group elevating action on mounting water stress to the top of the global corporate agenda. Members commit to an elevated 2050 ambition.
Open to:?WRC CSOs Advisory Board Members ??
Topic:?Collective Action, WRC Investment Portfolio, NPWI?
Date:?January 19th, May – TBD, September 21st, December – TBD
Venue:?In-Person (January & September; Virtual?(May & December)
Time:?1 Session – 8 am PT
Description:?The Leadership Circle members play a vital role in shaping the strategic vision of the coalition and monitoring progress toward the 2030 WRC goals. Members of the working group meet bi-monthly to address shared barriers and opportunities.
Collaborative Model
Digital & Innovation
Positive Water Impact
UN Water Conference – Planning
WRC Investment Portfolio
WASH4Work All Member Meeting
WASH4Work is a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2016 to mobilize business action on water access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in workplace operations, in communities where companies operate, and across supply chains.
Open to: WASH4WORK Members + CEO Water Mandate Members
Date: Bi-annual
Time: 2 Sessions (7 AM PT , 3 PM PT)
Venue: Virtual
To view past meetings, please reach out to your CEO Water Mandate representative or contact ceowatermandate@unglobalcompact.org