About

About the CEO Water Mandate

The CEO Water Mandate is a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General and the UN Global Compact, providing a multi-stakeholder platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of corporate water sustainability policies and practices. The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with over 7000 corporate participants and other stakeholders from more than 140 countries. The UN Global Compact is based on ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment, and anti-corruption

About the Guidelines

The CEO Water Mandate’s Corporate Water Disclosure Guidelines offer a common approach to business reporting on water-related issues. They put forward metrics and approaches that allow companies to communicate meaningfully with their stakeholders about their water management practices and that can begin to harmonize practice. The Guidelines also provide guidance for defining what water-related topics to report. These Guidelines are intended to drive convergence and harmonization with respect to how companies report their water management practices while helping to minimize reporting burdens, thus allowing companies to allocate more time and resources to actively manage water.

What is corporate water disclosure?

Corporate water disclosure is the act of reporting information to stakeholders (investors, nongovernmental organizations, consumers, communities, suppliers, and employees) related to the current state of a company’s water management, the implications for the business and others, and the company’s strategic responses. Disclosure is a critical component of a company’s water management efforts and of water-related sustainability more generally.

Disclosure supports a more sustainable and equitable management of water resources by improving the ability of stakeholder audiences to evaluate a company’s water practices and make comparisons across companies. It thus fosters greater corporate accountability. Disclosure can support business viability in many ways, including:

• Improving a company’s understanding of its water risks, opportunities, and impacts and the effectiveness of its responses
• Providing an opportunity to demonstrate progress and good practices to external stakeholders, thereby improving the company’s reputation and building investor confidence
• Establishing a dialogue and building credibility with key stakeholders, paving the way for future partnerships that advance shared water-related goals

About the project team

About the Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) served as a strategic partner throughout the development of the Guidelines. GRI is a leading organization in the sustainability field. GRI promotes the use of sustainability reporting as a way for organizations to become more sustainable and contribute to sustainable development. www.globalreporting.org

About the Water Disclosure Working Group and Corporate Water Disclosure Stakeholder Advisory Group

During the development of the Guidelines, the project team regularly consulted with the CEO Water Mandate’s Water Disclosure Working Group (WDWG)—comprising representatives from Mandate-endorsing companies—and the Corporate Water Disclosure Stakeholder Advisory Group (CWDSAG), which included a variety of representatives from civil society groups, water-related-tool developers, trade associations, and government and intergovernmental agencies. The expertise of these groups enabled the project team to ensure it was building on existing disclosure practice as well as to ensure that the Guidelines addressed the wide range of company and stakeholder interests. The tables below list WDWG and CWDSAG members who have contributed to the Guidelines at some point during their development.