Coalition to develop corporate water risk guidance

A coalition of SCS Global Services, the World Resources Institute, WWF, and the CEO Water Mandate is developing the first globally aligned corporate guidance for assessing water dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities across value chains.

Companies face mounting pressure from investors, regulators, and communities to account for their water use across entire value chains, but unlike greenhouse gas (GHG) protocols, there is no common framework for measurement. A common framework gives corporations, investors, policymakers, technology providers, academic institutions and NGOs a shared basis for evaluating corporate sustainability efforts.

Water Scopes 1-3 will create the foundation on which a water protocol can be built and to which existing standards can adapt. Companies will have a standardized way to define and measure direct water use within their own operations, water embedded in the energy they consume, and water impacts across their entire value chain.

This initiative brings together the organizations that have shaped the global water stewardship landscape and the organization that helped build the original GHG Protocol. These organizations include:

• World Resources Institute: co-author of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and home of Aqueduct, the world's leading water risk tool.
• WWF: one of the world's most influential environmental organizations, with deep expertise in freshwater ecosystems.
• CEO Water Mandate: a flagship initiative of the United Nations Global Compact and the leading global platform for advancing corporate water stewardship and business action on water security and resilience.
• SCS Global Services: 40+ years of third-party environmental certification, verification, and standards development and home of the SCS-116 Water Stewardship and Resiliency Standard.

This guidance will become the foundation for corporate water disclosure, target-setting, investor risk assessment, and regulatory compliance globally.