This report offers recommendation on how to integrate water into investment policies, portfolio management, strategic planning and client relationship building. It serves as a stepping-stone for managers just beginning to integrate water risks and opportunities into their thinking, as well as for advanced investors looking to deepen their practices.
Recommendations are designed to guide individual investment managers. It is also a helpful resource for those in the data and research ecosystem looking to help asset managers and owners expand their understanding of sustainability risks.
Many in the investment community recognize the growing challenges posed by resource scarcity, population growth, energy demands, climate change and increasing competition for freshwater resources. Water risks, in particular, are becoming more tangible. The World Economic Forum recently named water availability as the “top global risk.” Historic droughts, more pronounced extreme weather events and escalating water competition are all adding to the materiality of water as a financial risk.
Ceres recently interviewed 35 global asset owners and fund managers with over $6 trillion in collective assets under management on how they are integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors and in particular water risks into investment decisions. The findings offer recommendations on how to integrate water into investment policies, portfolio management, strategic planning and client relationship building. It serves as a stepping-stone for managers just beginning to integrate (ESG) and water risks and opportunities into their thinking, as well as for advanced investors looking to deepen their practices
The “How to Guide” of ESG and Water Risk Integration follows the publication of the Ceres 21st Century Investor: Blueprint for Sustainable Investing, which provides specific steps that help asset owners, and managers steer a sustainable investment course. It also follows the publication of the Ceres Aqua Gauge, which provides a framework for both companies and investors to evaluate their exposure to water risks and develop mitigation strategies across their value chains.