Primary Functions
- Understand the connections between water, COVID-19, and the business community.
- Find guidance on actions companies can take to facilitate a “blue” economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an eye toward long-term resilience.
- Connect with capacity-building resources and practical examples of water-related actions companies are taking in response to COVID-19.
Detailed Description
Once COVID-19 is mostly contained and businesses begin operations with some semblance of normalcy, there will still be much work to be done. Even once the direct health risks of COVID-19 have largely subsided, its effects on our global economies will linger, likely for years to come.
Much has been made of a “green” recovery to COVID-19: one that simultaneously stimulates and strengthens the economy and also advances critical climate goals that ultimately make our economies more sustainable and equitable. But this “green” recovery to COVID-19 must also be “blue”: a robust economic recovery goes hand in hand with water stewardship.
The business community can play a key role in combatting the spread of COVID-19, as well as rebuilding the economy and reducing the risk of future shocks. This Issue Brief, developed by the Pacific Institute in its role as Co-Secretariat of the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate, expands on the Issue Brief outlining Phase 1 of this framework to further articulate this role. Specifically, this Issue Brief:
- Articulates the connections between water, COVID-19, and the business community;
- Offers a practical framework on actions companies can take to facilitate a “blue” economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an eye toward long-term resilience; and
- Connects businesses to capacity-building resources and practical examples of water-related actions companies are taking in response to COVID-19.
Phase 1 of the framework can be found here.
An expanded, web-based version of this framework can be found at: https://ceowatermandate.org/covid
