The Future Water Agenda Report
How water can lead the way for sustainability and collective action
Water is an essential resource. It is necessary for life on earth and everything that comes with it. The economy and most businesses depend on water. Without it, they would be forced to shut down and global commerce would grind to a halt.
Despite the importance of water, companies and governments around the world generally do not recognize how much water matters to them or bother to take stock of what would happen if they did not have it.
WWF Global Water Stewardship Lead
Key insights from our research program:
- There is strong, growing interest and a public appetite for action on water, with an emphasis on water quality.
- Companies face substantial, growing water issues and risks.
- Water stewardship needs more holistic, integrated approaches to climate and nature, embracing nature-based solutions.
- Collective action involving government and public-private partnerships is seen by experts as critical to impact and scale.
- Companies are overly focused on performance in operations and insufficiently focused on water impacts and dependencies in value chains.
- Current, jargon-heavy communications on water are not effective in engaging people and are seen as less credible by experts.
Five Vital Shifts for Corporate Water Stewardship:
- Position water holistically as a connector and solutions space for more integrated, effective approaches to climate, nature, and other sustainability priorities.
- Strengthen water stewardship practices across your value chain, prioritizing water quality impacts and dependencies.
- Prioritize and invest in cross-sectoral collective action in priority, at-risk catchments.
- Proactively engage in public-private sector collaboration, policy advocacy, and restoration of nature-based solutions for resilience.
- Embrace disclosure and use more compelling communications linking water to tangible improvements for climate, nature, and people.
The Shaping the Future Water Agenda program was initiated in the summer of 2024 to develop insights and guidance that help companies and partners strengthen approaches to corporate water stewardship, advance collective action on shared global and local water challenges and strengthen water-related engagement with stakeholders. The research incorporated insights from global consultation of over 350 expert stakeholders, a survey of more than 30,000 individuals across 30 countries, and engagement with 20 leading global companies that have supported this initiative.
Learn more about GlobeScan and WWF’s past research initiatives on nature and water:
WWF is one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, with a 60-year history and a presence in over 100 countries on 6 continents. WWF is actively engaged in conserving the planet, ecologically rebuilding the natural environment and building a future in which people live and thrive in harmony with nature. WWF’s mission is implemented through policy and conservation programs, by strengthening public capacity to act on environmental issues, and by advocating with companies to reduce their carbon footprint.
