CEO and board leadership are essential for setting strategies and incentives to achieve impact. Such leadership requires individual corporate action and responsibility, focused on activities that the business has the most direct control over and where the water risks are most material to the company and its stakeholders. It also requires collective action and collaboration with others in business, government and civil society to address the more complex, systems-level challenges that no one company or actor can tackle alone.

1. Water management:

Corporate water strategies should ensure compliance, manage risks and improve water efficiency, waste management and replenishment in the company’s own business operations and value chain, with the dual goals of identifying and mitigating negative impacts and improving operational performance and excellence. In a growing number of industries and locations, there is untapped potential for harnessing new technologies and business model or financing innovations to move from ‘doing no harm’ to proactively delivering profitable and scalable water solutions.

2. Water stewardship

Leading companies are going a step further by committing to more integrated approaches that go beyond their own operations to work with others on watershed management and valuing water. This calls for the ability to effectively map and engage with diverse stakeholders, usually including competitors. It requires complex data collection and analysis on the economic value of water, including water use trade-offs, understanding the water-food-energy nexus, political economy and demographic dynamics. And to be effective, it calls for joint investments and collective water governance and accountability mechanisms.

3. Water advocacy

Some corporate leaders are also becoming outspoken champions for water sustainability at local, national and global levels. They invest in research, innovation and technology beyond their own immediate operational needs. And they support efforts to increase public awareness and education on the urgency of the water crisis, alongside joint advocacy for good water governance and appropriate public policy reforms.