Investor Water Toolkit

Water is a risk that investors must better understand and manage as water scarcity and pollution become more prevalent, populations grow and a changing climate makes rainfall and weather patterns more erratic. Fragmented or weak governance of water systems adds further to the risk. Risks related to maintaining a company’s social license to operate are also increasing, with companies halting expansion plans or being pushed out of operating regions due to regional community concerns over water. 

By 2030, demand for water is expected to exceed supply by 56 percent; yet every business in the world relies on water.  These water-related risks to companies have multiple material impacts for investors, from underperformance of investments to increasing volatility and risks across entire asset classes. 

The Investor Water Toolkit is the ultimate investor resource on water integration. Developed in collaboration with more than 40 institutional investors from The Investor Water Hub—a working group of the Ceres Investor Network—the Toolkit is the first comprehensive resource enabling investors—from pension funds to endowments to asset managers—to evaluate and tackle the water risks in their investment portfolios. The Toolkit is designed to: 

• Help investors comprehensively understand water risk drivers 

• Create a one-stop resource that allows institutional investors to integrate water across the decision-making value chain, from asset class analysis to portfolio characterization, to buy/sell decision making 

• Provide stand-alone guides, resource lists and databases on specific topics or asset classes, including equities, municipal bonds and private equity 

• Provide case studies written by investors that showcase real life water risk integration practices