About

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

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, labor standards, the environment, and anti-corruption.

The CEO Water Mandate’s Corporate Water Disclosure Guidelines offer a common approach to disclosure. They put forward metrics that can begin to harmonize practice and also provide guidance for defining what to report. It is our hope these Guidelines 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.

The Pacific Institute (representing the Mandate Secretariat) led the development of the Guidelines, seeking input from organizations and initiatives with expertise in this area. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP served as a strategic adviser and provided input throughout this process. CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), World Resources Institute (WRI), and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) were project partners, offering insight regarding water disclosure practices and helping to ensure that the Guidelines built on existing approaches where possible and appropriate.

The project team regularly consulted with the Mandate’s Water Disclosure Working Group (WDWG)—comprising representatives from many Mandate-endorsing companies—as well as with the Corporate Water Disclosure Stakeholder Advisory Group (CWDSAG), which included a variety of representatives from civil society groups, water-related tool developers, trade associations, government, and intergovernmental organizations. A complete list of WDWG and CWDSAG members can be found in Appendix D. Consultation with these individuals was geared toward ensuring that the Guidelines remain user-friendly while addressing the wide array of company and stakeholder interests in corporate water disclosure.