BOSTON, Oct. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A first-of-its-kind Ceres benchmark analysis of 72 companies from four water-intensive industries—apparel, beverage, food, and high-tech—shows encouraging progress on corporate water management, but underscores collectively, the companies have a long way to go in reducing their demands and impacts on freshwater resources.
The Valuing Water Finance Initiative Benchmark report evaluates how companies of focus identified by the initiative are performing against the six Corporate Expectations for Valuing Water, serving as the ambition around the full range of water issues that large companies should meet by 2030 – a timeline critical to slowing the pace of deteriorating water resources and meeting the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goal for Water.
Notable findings in the report, developed using publicly available company disclosures, include:
- While 75% of the 72 assessed companies have set time-bound targets aimed at reducing the amount of water they use, only 17% of companies have done so to reduce their impacts to water quality.
- Only 35% of the companies consider contextual factors—such as local watershed conditions, regulatory dynamics, and community water needs—when assessing water use risks, and even fewer—14%—consider contextual factors when assessing water quality risks.
- Only 13% of the companies have time-bound targets to protect or restore ecosystems with specific consideration of outcomes related to freshwater supplies and aquatic biodiversity.
- Companies' efforts to ensure communities in areas where they operate and source from have equitable access to clean water and sanitation (WASH) are largely lacking. Only 28% of the companies have taken the first step by establishing a corporate policy explicitly acknowledging water and sanitation as a fundamental human right.
- About half of the companies have board and senior management oversight of water management strategies and also link incentives for executives to water targets and goals. However, only 36% of the companies integrate water risks and opportunities into strategic business planning for direct operations and supply chains.
The report adds to Ceres' extensive research supporting investors in the Valuing Water Finance Initiative who are making the business case for corporate action on water risk. Currently 94 investors, who collectively represent more than $17 trillion in assets, have committed to engage with the 72 focus companies through the initiative.
Media contact: Tamera Manzanares, [email protected]
SOURCE Ceres
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