Water risks affect all businesses, regardless of their reliance on water. Climate change will accelerate and amplify these risks and create direct consequences for the water security of vulnerable communities and ecosystems worldwide. We must be ready to face the shocks and stressors that are sure to come because of climate impacts. For the past 5 years, the World Economic Forum has ranked the water crises, or water-related issues, as top global risks that will cause destructive economic and social impacts across entire countries and industries. Companies have begun to take effective action to better steward water resources and they now have the means to build the resilience of these water resources to climate change impacts. As is true for corporate water stewardship, companies building resilience of water resources must look beyond their fenceline to collaborate and invest in the broader landscape to protect and restore the health of river basins to ensure ecosystem services are well functioning.
We must come together and act now to take the necessary steps to reduce the vulnerabilities of communities and economies. Business now has the opportunity to bridge the gap between climate and water stewardship strategies, broadening the focus from today’s corporate sustainability risks to tomorrow’s global water security.
