I recently read the just-published Globescan and WWF report, The Future Water Agenda Report. I contributed my perspective on corporate water strategy and creating greater business value beyond “replenishment” strategies and looked forward to reading the results of the extensive research.
The report is based on a global survey of 30,000 people in 31 countries. This research and publication are timely as they reinforce a growing recognition that businesses must holistically quantify the co-benefits of their water, energy, climate, and nature investments.
There is a wealth of insights from the research summarized in the report, but here are a few “big picture” takeaways from the report:
- “Most companies do not understand or act in accordance with the real extent and value of water issues, dependencies, and impacts for their businesses or stakeholders. In fact, water is greatly undervalued in the risk and materiality assessments, sustainability programs, and decision making of most companies.”
- “There is a strong, growing interest and a public appetite for action on water, with an emphasis on water quality.”
- “Companies face substantial, growing water issues and risks.”
- “Water stewardship needs more holistic, integrated approaches to climate and nature, embracing nature-based solutions.”
- “Collective action involving government and public-private partnerships is seen by experts as critical to impact and scale.”
- “Companies are overly focused on performance in operations and insufficiently focused on water impacts and dependencies.”
- “Current, jargon-heavy communications on water are not as effective in engaging people and are seen as less credible by experts.”
One of the “vital shifts” for corporate water stewardships recommended in the report is:
“Position water holistically as a connector and solutions space for more integrated, effective approaches to climate, nature, and other sustainability priorities.”
This recommendation highlights that businesses must systemically quantify business value at risk (BVAR) and the co-benefits (value creation) from investing in innovative technologies, partnerships (catalytic communities), and business models (water as a service). Companies also need to understand BVAR across their entire value chain (supply chain, operations, and consumer/customer product use) and not just their operations.
For example, BVAR and co-benefits can be incorporated into regenerative value chain development to reduce corporate risk and develop holistic stewardship projects that add value to the business while also supporting environmental priorities in areas where businesses operate. The business case and stacked benefits of a regenerative value chain and 4 pathways for developing one are presented in, Quantifying the business benefits of a regenerative value chain.
We are finally headed to a point where leading companies will quantify BVAR across their value chain and the co-benefit value creation from investing in water, energy, climate, nature, and social impact initiatives.
What’s your take on this?