Industries we serve

It depends on how financially material water is to the company and the degree to which existing water management practices and controls are in place to manage current and future water-related risks threatening business continuity and the company’s bottom line. If water is key ingredient to your supply chain, direct operations, or consumer markets and you source from, operate in, or provide good and services to geographies facing water stress, the answer is most likely yes, your company will need a water strategy to manage emerging risks and build resilience.

No, there is no single standard for how to manage, track, or account for water in the private sector like the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHP) and Science-Based Targets for carbon. Instead, there are different resources available to address the different water-related priorities, risks, and opportunities across industries and geographies, including guidance available from the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), and the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER).

Develop a water strategy aligned with TNFD and CSRD expectations by first identifying financial and impact materiality (double materiality) informed by the company’s water-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities across operations and supply chains. Based on that, define strategic priorities and governance to address material risks, set time-bound and context-based water targets relevant to the watershed and business context, and develop an implementation and disclosure plan to drive meaningful impact on the ground and effectively communicate to key stakeholders.

No, focus on high-risk locations first — facilities in water-stressed regions with high dependency on water resources, facing regulatory pressure, or where community concerns over water are growing. Prioritize strategically and consider what’s already been done and other business priorities, rather than trying to address everything at once.

Water stewardship is the responsible and sustainable management of water resources in a way that considers the needs of businesses, communities, and ecosystems within a shared watershed. It recognizes that water is a shared, finite resource, so managing it effectively requires collaboration with other water users to address emerging water challenges rather than focusing only on a company’s own water use.

Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA) is a method for quantifying the volumetric water benefits of water stewardship activities, and associated guidance related to planning, project selection, tracking, and reporting and communication. It helps translate the results of water restoration and conservation efforts into quantifiable, comparable metrics that enable making credible and impactful claims.

A Volumetric Water Benefit (VWB) is a volume of water resulting from water stewardship activities, relative to a unit of time, that modifies the hydrology in a beneficial way and/or helps reduce shared water challenges. VWB is the most common and widely adopted metric for tracking and reporting progress towards public corporate water restoration and replenishment goals and targets.