Valuing Water Finance Initiative

We are facing an existential and multi-faceted threat to our global freshwater resources, across the U.S. and globally. In addition to the danger this poses to human and ecosystem health, the global water crisis is also a systemic, far-reaching, financial risk to nearly all economies. The water crisis is exacerbated by climate change, making it even more  urgent to drive capital market actors – including large institutional investors, banks and major corporations – to address water issues. 

The Valuing Water Finance Initiative is driving large-scale change in corporate water practices via key partnerships, first-of-its-kind research, and institutional investor engagement. Using new research and analysis as a foundation, Ceres is co-developing — with members of the Valuing Water Finance Task Force, and other investor and NGO partners — a set of clear action steps that companies should take to improve water stewardship. In 2022, the Valuing Water Finance Initiative will launch an investor-led campaign shaped by these action steps to move companies on their water use via investor engagement.

The Valuing Water Finance Initiative builds on Ceres’ decades of leadership and success in building investor and corporate climate leadership through our powerful networks and engagement initiatives. Through the influential global Climate Action 100+ initiative and many other engagements, Ceres has moved hundreds of companies toward climate action and seeks to replicate that success in tackling the water crisis.

Ceres has partnered on this effort with the Government of the Netherlands, which leads the global Valuing Water Initiative.