The Coming Revolution In Water Stewardship

Reporting Consolidation and Expanding Investment

What`s Going On?

There are several water reporting frameworks deployed across the private and public sector to support sustainability decisions and water replenishment goals. Some of these are tied to a specific mission, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., CEO Water Mandate), some were developed for risk identification and management purposes (e.g., Task Force on Climate-Related Disclosures), and some have grown out of the demand for transparency related to environmental impact and sustainability (e.g., Global Reporting Initiative). Given the increased corporate focus on environmental and social governance (ESG) reporting, the myriad of frameworks and associated metrics make common action difficult.

Many companies following the various frameworks employ a stewardship aspect to their water programs. The most common approach is to invest in projects that replenish the water consumed in their operations, typically on a one-for-one basis, allowing companies to track and demonstrate progress. However, it does not measure the impact of the replenishment investment on watershed health, nor does it capture the stacked or secondary benefits of nature-based solutions. Will Sarni, CEO of Water Foundry, recently wrote a piece published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), titled, [We need to rethink ESG to ensure access to water and sanitation for all." In this piece, he writes that [-consolidation in reporting frameworks is essential to align reporting metrics, dramatically reduce the reporting burden on companies and facilitate adoption of reporting in investment risk evaluations." Similarly, we expect a continued drive towards consolidation of water management frameworks and a broadening of watershed health investments.