Water

Ceres builds investor and business leadership to protect freshwater supplies around the globe, integrating capital market solutions into everything we do. We seek to turn smart water management into a business fundamental and water stewardship into an economic imperative.

To drive broader, more systemic change, we leverage the power of institutional investors to drive corporate attention to, and management of, water risks. We conduct research to identify gaps in institutional investor water awareness, and share best practices for integrating water into the investment decision-making process.

Our Investor Water Toolkit is the ultimate investor resource on water risk integration in portfolio management. This comprehensive, how-to guide was developed in collaboration with Ceres’ Investor Water Hub, a working group of Ceres’ Investor Network.

Ceres works with some of the biggest companies in the world to improve their water stewardship. We are particularly focused on improving practices in the food sector, which uses 70 percent of the world’s freshwater, largely in agricultural supply chains. Our new benchmarking report, Feeding Ourselves Thirsty: Tracking Food Company Progress Toward a Water-Smart Future tracks more than 40 of the largest food sector companies and how they are responding to water risks in their operations and supply chains. Learn more and see company scores at www.feedingourselvesthirsty.ceres.org. 

Faced with the looming impacts of climate change and dwindling clean water resources, there is a pressing need to drive capital market actors – including large institutional investors, banks and major corporations – to play a role in addressing water issues. Ceres has a demonstrated track record of engaging corporate leaders on sustainable water practices and spearheading investor engagement on water risk. However, there is critical work to be done to strengthen the business case for valuing and managing freshwater resources as a financial imperative.

Ceres launched the Valuing Water Finance Task Force, in partnership with the Government of the Netherlands, to drive corporate action on water-related financial risks. The Task Force, made up of some of the largest and most influential pension funds and banks, aims to raise awareness within the capital markets of the widespread negative impacts of corporate practices on water supplies, and the industries and practices linked to the most severe and systemic of these impacts. Learn more.

To help inspire and inform further change, Ceres and WWF created the AgWater Challenge. Together, we're engaging leading food and beverage companies to provide examples of leadership and encourage stronger, more transparent commitments to better steward fresh water resources in agricultural supply chains. Learn more about the Ceres/WWF AgWater Challenge.

From a policy perspective, we concentrate our efforts on California, where our Connect the Drops campaign brings business and investor communities together to advocate sustainable, and resilient water policies in that water-challenged state.  

The bottom line is, companies, water utilities and investors must protect our water supplies by adopting business and investment practices that value every drop and protect water supplies for generations to come.