Corporate giants to view water pollution as financial risk
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Oct 2022
Non-profit organisation Ceres has launched a new investor-led initiative to urge 72 of the world’s biggest corporate water users and polluters to value and act on water as a financial risk.
The Valuing Water Finance Initiative raises the profile of fresh water as the ‘world’s most precious natural resource’ and provides investors with the tools needed to ‘make the case’ for prioritising water risk when engaging with investee companies.
The 64 initial institutional investors representing $9.8tn in assets under management have committed to engage with companies to drive sustainable water leadership.
The new effort will engage the investors to value and act on water as a financial risk and drive the necessary large-scale change to better protect water systems. The initiative is the only global investor-led initiative aimed at moving companies to respond to the global water crisis.
The initiative prioritises a set of six science-based, actionable Corporate Expectations for Valuing Water, which are informed by scientific evidence that aligns with the United Nation’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goal for Water and supports the aims of the Ceres Roadmap 2030. The expectations lay out clear action steps for focus companies and set the stage for investor engagement focused on collective progress:
- Water quantity. Companies do not negatively impact water availability in water-scarce areas across their value chain.
- Water quality. Companies do not negatively impact water quality across their value chain.
- Ecosystem protection. Companies do not contribute to the conversion of natural ecosystems critical to freshwater supplies and aquatic biodiversity and actively work to restore degraded habitats that their businesses depend upon.
- Access to water and sanitation. Companies contribute to the social, economic and ecological resilience of communities they interact with by contributing to achieving universal and equitable access to water across their value chain.
- Board oversight. Corporate boards and senior management oversee water management efforts.
- • Public policy engagement. Companies ensure that all public policy engagement and lobbying activities are aligned with sustainable water resource management outcomes. M