Frequently Asked Questions

The Water Resilience Coalition is an industry-driven, CEO-led initiative of the United Nations Global Compact CEO Water Mandate that aims to elevate the long-term mounting crisis of global water stress to the top of the corporate agenda and to preserve the world’s freshwater resources through collective action in water-stressed basins and ambitious, quantifiable commitments.

The Coalition’s ultimate goal is to elevate global water resilience to the top of the corporate agenda and preserve the world’s freshwater resources through collective action in water-stressed basins and ambitious, quantifiable commitments. By coming together, the Coalition will work toward a resilient world that can adapt to the impacts of climate change and that has enough clean water for all.

The Water Resilience Coalition is an industry-driven, CEO-led initiative of the CEO Water Mandate, spearheaded by seven co-founding companies, AB InBev, Diageo, Dow, Ecolab, Gap Inc., Microsoft and PVH, which have pledged their commitment to net positive water impact through collective action by 2050. The Coalition is also supported by key partners such as the Global Center on Adaptation, Global Water Partnership, International Water Management Institute, Pacific Institute, The Nature Conservancy, Valuing Water Initiative, World Resources Institute, and Water.org.

The Coalition will function under the umbrella of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate and will have a dedicated leadership committee and governance structure consisting of Coalition members.

The CEO Water Mandate is an initiative committed to doing more – enabling CEOs to turn their ambition into action through collaboration. Through various conversations with corporate members of the CEO Water Mandate and other private sector leaders, it’s apparent that there is a growing sense of urgency to take even bolder action on the water and climate crises through leadership at the CEO level, coordinated on-the-ground efforts, and quantifiable, time-bound goals.

Compared to other organizations, the Coalition differentiates itself through:

• Chief executive involvement to elevate water-related issues in the international climate conversation
• Collective ambitious goals to deliver greater impact and build alignment with public sector momentum
• Coordinated collaboration with NGOs and other local actors bringing scale to watershed projects
• Magnified industry influence, changing the game for suppliers, business partners, competitors, policy and regulation

Companies that join the Water Resilience Coalition will be expected to sign the water resilience pledge and make the needed investments in their own operations, as well as work together through collective action, to accomplish the pledge’s three overarching goals by 2050:

• Net Positive Water Impact: Deliver measurable net positive impact in water-stressed basins, focusing on the availability, quality, and accessibility of freshwater resources through industry-leading water operations and basin initiatives.
• Water Resilient Value Chain: Develop, implement, and enable strategies to support leading impact-based water resilience practices across the global value chain.
• Global Leadership: Raise the ambition of water resilience through public and corporate outreach, as well as inspire other industry leaders to join the Coalition and sign the water resilience pledge.

Investing in water reduction and smart water management will reduce operational dependence on water, improve operational performance and reduce costs, and ultimately decrease risk. Meeting their pledge obligations will also help companies to safeguard water resources for the future and mitigate climate risk. The Coalition involves moving from unilateral action to collective action and enables companies joining to be able to join forces and scale impact in water stressed basins. Furthermore, taking action on such a pressing issue demonstrates leadership and builds engagement with key stakeholders, such as investors, employees, supply chain partners, and consumers.

Water stress is increasing around the globe and has multiple dimensions, including namely availability, quality, and accessibility. Even if a business’ operations today aren’t directly impacted by the water crisis, it’s likely they will be impacted in the future. By 2050, 45 per cent of global GDP will be at risk due to water stress. Large enterprises have global supply chains, which means that they may be sourcing raw materials or having product made or assembled in water-stressed regions. For many companies, a significant amount of their water footprint is in their value chain. So even if their own operations aren’t directly affected by water stress, their business may still be at significant risk and they can make a positive contribution to this global effort.

By engaging the leaders of some of the world’s leading companies and by utilizing a campaign approach, the Coalition will create a sense of urgency around the water crisis and the need for immediate action. It will also inspire and catalyze specific actions on-the-ground in highly stressed basins around the world and work toward specific, quantifiable goals.

Global action on drinking water access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. However, while they are inextricably intertwined and interdependent, WASH challenges and those related to water scarcity and quality, are separate and distinct. We need action on both. The Coalition promotes a holistic approach to action, and in coordinating and catalyzing the efforts of so many leading companies, more can be achieved.

Since many freshwater resources are shared among dozens if not hundreds of actors, often individual action is insufficient to achieve lasting change in a particular region. Collective action is needed to ensure shared freshwater resources are managed equitably and sustainably. Further, working together, members can share knowledge and best practices; collaborate on larger, more significant projects; better shape and lead the industry; and set ambitious collective goals that together, deliver greater impact.

Action on water resilience is not at the scale and extent needed to address the magnitude of the water challenge. Business is in a unique position to help lead on this issue by using its reach and resources to accelerate progress. For example, the business community can be an intermediary between multiple parties, advocate for policy change, and/or invest in high-value initiatives. And through its scale, it can become a powerful force for good.

No sector or institution can solve the water crisis on their own. Collective ambitious goals by industry will amplify impact and build alignment with public sector momentum, but it will also be imperative to coordinate collaboration with NGOs to bring scale to water basin projects, and to work directly with governments to support effective water governance, and local water policies. Bringing in industry influence will change the game for suppliers, business partners, competitors, policy and regulation.

The pledge is the set of commitments that companies make when joining the Water Resilience Coalition. It is the engine through which the Coalition will catalyze action to achieve global water resilience.

Yes. Companies are required to commit to the pledge in order to become a member of the Coalition.

Placing water basins at the center of our efforts, as outlined through the pledge, offers the opportunity for the most impact, as this is the geographic scale that best aligns with how local water-related challenges manifest, as well as with how management responses can be tailored to reflect regional context. Further, most stressed water basins present high risk to industry if not managed correctly but have a manageable gap to achieve resiliency. 90 per cent of identified high and extremely high stress basins have a gap of less than 3,000M cubic KM to becoming resilient.

There are a wide variety of terms referring to the areas of land where water drains to a common outlet, such as river or aquifer. Some say “watershed.” Others says “catchment” or “river basin.” For the purposes of the Coalition, we will use the term “water basin.”

The three pillars of the pledge – achieving net positive water impact, building a water resilient value chain, and demonstrating global leadership – are the main mechanisms through which companies can improve basin resilience. As member companies work in concert to meet their pledge commitments, the Coalition has the potential to significantly impact freshwater use and management in regions of shared interest, while also contributing to broader efforts to address the global water crisis.

In order to achieve pledge commitments, the Coalition Secretariat will be working with members across various sectors to define and promote specific industry operating standards.

Measuring basin health is still an evolving science. As a starting point, the Coalition has leveraged water availability and use data from the World Resources Institute (WRI) to identify priority basins. Reviewing the total 410 basins, we selected 90 high or extremely high stressed basins that met the following criteria:

1. Water availability-to-withdrawal ratios were 40 per cent or higher based on present day or 2030 projections.
2. Industry withdrawals in the basin were above 50 per cent of total withdrawals.
3. Basins support populations of 5 million or more people by 2030.
4. A substantial improvement in basin resilience is feasible with Coalition involvement.
5. There are no ongoing wars or UN sanctions on the country where the basin is located.

These 90 high or extremely high stressed basins – representing 13 per cent of total basin area – will serve as a starting point to help Coalition members select priority regions for investment. Member companies can choose to broaden how they define the pledge’s scope (e.g., considering other dimensions of water stress or important regions that are less populated) to additional basins where they have operations, if they choose to do so.

The Coalition will continue to adjust the geographic scope of the pledge and the corollary collective action facilitation efforts as data on basin stress are updated and expanded.

The foundational intention of net positive water impact is the promotion of a healthy water basin—one that can meet current human, economic and ecological needs and medium-term projected demands, even with the anticipated constraints of climate change, population growth, and other freshwater supply, demand, quality and accessibility factors.

Much work still needs to be done to define net positive water impact more precisely to ensure we live up to this intent. But as we complete this work, we know we must start scaling up action now. We believe corporations must both invest in world-class water efficiency practices and invest in measurable improvement of watersheds in proportion to their local water use and economic impact. Therefore, the comprehensive impact that a company’s entire operations in a basin has on the availability, quality, and accessibility of water will contribute more to basin health than the stress it puts on the basin. We commit to thoughtful approaches based on both the impact of corporate water use and the degree of local water stress in a given water basin—we want communities and water basins to truly be better off because we’re a part of them.

Because of the many intricacies of different industries, operations, water sources, technologies, and other contextual considerations, it will take time for the Coalition to define the precise metrics that will accurately reflect this and to develop mechanisms for measurement. From Day 1 we commit to making this our objective, and this work is already in progress. We also commit to heavily involving the NGO community and public sector and bringing our combined scale and resources to efforts already underway. Current partners committed to working with the Coalition to help develop the measurement and tracking system include the World Resources Institute, the Nature Conservancy, the Global Center for Adaptation, and the International Water Management Institute. Along the way, we will be transparent around our efforts and the metrics and tracking we put in place.

The first draft of the pledge was created in early 2020. It will be re-assessed at least every two years based on lessons learned and the best available science.

The effects of water stress are ongoing and escalating. It’s important to demonstrate significant progress within the next ten years and achieve some of the benefits of the pledge before 2050 to help mitigate the worst effects of the global water crisis.

Coalition members believe that all companies should aim to have a net positive water impact in water-stressed basins by 2050, and they commit individually and collectively to use our influence over our value chains to ignite a movement toward this goal.

Coalition members recognize the challenges of driving outcomes beyond their direct control, but they also understand the importance of their role in addressing the water-related risks and impacts throughout their respective value chains. As such, Coalition members will implement strategies that address water-related impacts across their global value chain in water stressed regions, and promote technological innovation and circular economy design to reduce water-related impacts from the use of their products and services.

Upon joining the Coalition, members are expected to assess water use and impacts throughout their value chains, in order to inform implementation priorities and key water-stressed regions from the start. By “halfway there by 2030”, the expectation is that members will enable water resilience actions and outcomes in the parts of their value chain with the largest water dependencies and impacts. By 2050 coalition members will be working with all value chain partners with significant water use/impacts to encourage net positive water impact.

As Coalition members work together in coming years, they will lay out more tangible supply chain actions and commitments, likely by industry, that they believe will be most effective and impactful.

Some Coalition members will seek to engage key value chain partners when looking to fulfill the Coalition’s recruitment requirement (i.e., two companies per year). In those cases, such value chain partners joining the Coalition will be expected to achieve the same net positive water impact and supply chain commitments as all other members, thereby helping to catalyze a movement throughout the value chain.

C-Suite level involvement in both advocacy/outreach and Coalition recruitment activities is required in order to move water to the top of the business agenda. Our aim is to build awareness and catalyze further participation in the Coalition and action on the issue. All of which will help improve our ability to withstand the impacts of the water and the climate crises.

Water use within company operations requires energy. As companies take action to implement climate positive sustainable water management, they are in effect reducing energy and the carbon emissions associated with that energy use. This will have a cascading effect as Coalition members engage their supply chain partners in efforts to reduce overall water use. Further, Coalition member investments in basin health initiatives, such as nature-based solutions can also offer opportunities for water quantity/quality and greenhouse gas reduction co-benefits.

The Coalition is open to any company wanting to make a greater impact on the water crisis. We’re also interested in collaborating with public sector and non-profit partners wanting to support the effort. To learn more about engaging with the Coalition, contact resilience@ceowatermandate.org.

The Coalition welcomes those from companies that don’t use large sums of water. You can still influence suppliers (if applicable) and help raise awareness of this issue.

Companies that join the Water Resilience Coalition are expected to sign the water resilience pledge and make the needed investments in their own operations, as well as work together collectively, to accomplish the pledge’s three overarching commitments by 2050:

• Net Positive Water Impact: Deliver measurable net positive impact in water-stressed basins, focusing on the availability, quality, and accessibility of freshwater resources through industry leading water operations and basin initiatives.
• Water Resilient Value Chain: Develop, implement, and enable strategies to support leading impact-based water resilience practices across the global value chain.
• Global Leadership: Raise the ambition of water resilience through public and corporate outreach, as well as inspire other industry leaders to join the Coalition and sign the water resilience pledge.

In addition, Coalition members are expected to work together, share their knowledge, and participate in collective action projects in water-stressed basins to achieve their pledge commitments. They are required to report annually on their progress against pledge commitments, chief executives are expected to speak publicly at least once annually about the importance of taking action on water, and members must actively recruit at least two new members to the Coalition each year.

The Coalition Leadership Committee is the governance body that sets the overall strategic agenda of the Coalition, represented by up to 15 Coalition member companies reflecting geographic and industry diversity, in addition to other key advisors from civil society and multilateral agencies. Day-to-day managerial responsibilities are handled by the Coalition Secretariat. In addition, there is a CEO Circle – comprising of interested C-Suite executives from the Leadership Committee and other Coalition members – responsible for leading outreach/advocacy efforts on behalf of the Coalition and serving as its public face.

Yes. As the Coalition is part of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, Water Resilience Coalition membership requires participation in both the UN Global Compact and the CEO Water Mandate.

Yes. As an initiative of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, membership in the Water Resilience Coalition requires membership in both the UN Global Compact and the CEO Water Mandate.

As part of their commitment to supporting the work of the Coalition, companies contribute anywhere from $10,000 – $100,000 annually depending on their revenue and level of engagement (i.e., Leadership Committee or regular Coalition member). This contribution is separate from membership dues for participation in the UN Global Compact or to participate in the Mandate’s Action Platform.

Founding companies have committed to a minimum of three years in a leadership role to ensure there is a strong group of companies to help establish the Coalition during the initial years. After three years, the time commitment requirement by leadership committee members may be re-evaluated. Member companies joining the Coalition in 2020 are also asked to make an initial three-year commitment as the initiative is getting established.

Our aim is to convert water-stressed basins to healthy, resilient basins, and so we will measure the change in basin health as an indicator of our success. The exact measurements for understanding resilient basins are being developed. As a starting point, we will define a healthy basin as one that can meet current human, economic, and ecological needs and medium-term projected demands, even with the anticipated constraints of climate change, population growth, and other freshwater supply, demand, quality and accessibility factors.  

Yes, they are required to report annually.

Fresh water is abundant on Earth. However, the world’s accessible fresh water is not evenly distributed and not feasible to transport over long distances. Therefore, some regions have abundant water resources, but many regions with more arid climates have more limited supplies of fresh water. At the same time, the demand for water is growing and the climate crisis is drastically altering the dynamics of hydrological cycles around the world, resulting both in increased droughts and increased flooding. The result is uncertainty, increased variability, and therefore increased water scarcity. While some regions have plentiful supplies, others are struggling to meet the needs of their communities, ecosystems, and economies.

Water scarcity refers to the volume of human water consumption relative to the volume of freshwater resources in a given area. Issues of water scarcity are human-driven and can be measured consistently across regions and over time.

The water crisis will not disappear any time soon and in fact, it is expected to get worse in the coming years and decades. By 2050, more than half the world’s population will be at risk due to water scarcity if no action is taken and climate risks persist at the current rate.[1] The planet is facing increasing droughts, flooding and changing precipitation patterns from climate change, as well as a strain on water resources due to increasing population, industrialization, and urbanization. As a result, governments around the globe will have more difficulty ensuring sufficient water supplies for their local populations and for industry, agriculture, and energy production.

Good water quality is essential for life on our planet to thrive. Polluted water can spread disease, limit economic growth, and degrade ecosystems. Wastewater systems – which allow for used water to be properly treated and released back into the environment, and/or cleaned for reuse – are struggling to keep pace with population growth, increased development and industrialization, and urbanization. As a result, 80 per cent of wastewater flows back into the environment without being treated or reused, which further limits supply by rendering previously clean water sources unusable.

Access to safe water is another critical component of the global water crisis. In some parts of the world, running water is nonexistent in households and fresh water sources may be located far away, requiring a trek on foot to collect enough water for the daily needs of a family. The water supply can also be contaminated, not always available or prohibitively expensive. In fact, one in nine people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water in their household or have limited access in their surrounding community.

Water stress refers to the ability, or lack thereof, to meet human and ecological demand for freshwater. Compared to scarcity, water stress is a more inclusive and broader, taking into account several physical aspects related to water resources, including water availability, water quality, and the accessibility of water.

Water risk refers to the possibility of an entity experiencing a water-related challenge (e.g., water scarcity, water stress, flooding, infrastructure decay, drought). The extent of risk is a function of the likelihood of a specific challenge occurring and the severity of the challenge’s impact. The severity of impact itself depends on the intensity of the challenge, as well as the vulnerability of the actor.

There are many factors that can contribute to water stress. Increased demand for water stemming from industrial, agricultural, and domestic use can cause more water to be withdrawn than is available, depleting the supply and causing some basins to become water stressed. Climate change can cause once-abundant basins to have significantly less supply. For instance, research by the US Geological Survey indicates the Colorado River is so sensitive to global warming that annual flows are forecast to diminish by roughly 25 per cent by 2050 as temperatures continue to climb. Pollution can make abundant supplies unusable. Ineffective water governance and/or inadequate water infrastructure can mean that physically abundant supplies are not consistently delivered to the communities and industries that need them.

Water stress and climate change are intrinsically connected – water is perhaps the most visible and direct way climate change impacts our planet. For example, higher temperature can make snowpack melt earlier, more quickly and more drastically, thus leading to immediate floods followed by drought. Less water means pollution is more heavily concentrated (and therefore potentially more dangerous) and that drinking water sources are compromised. As the impacts of climate change worsen and water becomes scarcer in arid and semi-arid places, millions of people will be displaced.

Today, more than 25 per cent of the world’s population live in water-stressed regions and are negatively affected in some way by water-related issues. Because of this, communities may no longer be able to rely on drinking water sources, agricultural growers may not have access to sufficient irrigation, and jobs may be lost due to business’ inability to operate without water. One in 9 people around the globe lack access to safe drinking water. More than 2 million children die annually from water-related diseases.

According to UNESCO, industry uses 20% of all water globally. In high-income countries, industry is the largest consumer, using 40% of all water and as much as 60% in some places. As more developing countries industrialize, their water use patterns are following the same trajectory.

As a significant water user, business faces two distinct risks. First, are risks to company operations, products and services, such as impacts to its suppliers or how its products and services affect communities and ecosystems. Second, are risks due to basin conditions that cannot be addressed through changes in operations or its suppliers and requires engagement outside the fence.

With the impact of the water crisis, business is already experiencing the reality of water stress. CDP’s 2018 Global Water Report revealed that, among companies responding to its survey, their collective losses due to water-related issues were $38.5 billion, a 50% increase in one year. Furthermore, according to the World Bank, some regions could see their growth rates decline by as much as 6% of GDP by 2050 as a result of water-related losses.

While there are many businesses that have committed to conserving water and/or adopted a smart water management approach, not enough is being done. Despite a large number of businesses (88 per cent) that are aware of water scarcity risks, only half of them have a plan to manage these risks. Most telling is that the amount of water used by the private sector has continued to increase – 50 per cent of companies used more water in 2018 than they did in 2015.

Many solutions to conserve water and improve water quality already exist. This includes using smart water management in business operations; building more resilient water basins with improved stewardship practices; aligning with local stakeholders to determine equitable water resource allocation; increasing water accessibility to employees and nearby communities; working to advance effective and equitable public policy and regulation; and building awareness of the issue to ultimately change how water is valued and managed.

Resilience is the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends or disturbances related to climate change.

If no action is taken, it’s expected that the world will face a 40 per cent shortfall in fresh water by 2030 – meaning the demand for fresh water will be 40 per cent greater than the supply. That means more and more places around the world will face their Day Zero when the taps run dry.