CEO Water Mandate

18 November 2010

This week, I've been at the United Nations CEO Water Mandate's South African conference.

WWF, with whom SABMiller formed the Water Futures Partnership, were also there and they've written a very interesting reflection on it. The full article is on their website but I  thought I'd share some of it with you here:

Around the world, freshwater supplies are under siege. Polluted, wasted and altered by climate change, the resource that supports life on Earth is in trouble. For WWF, protecting freshwater ecosystems is part of our mission to create harmony between people and nature. For businesses, dabbling in freshwater conservation has largely been a philanthropic endeavor. But that has changed in recent years, as companies have awakened to a simple fact: There is no business without water.

The CEO Water Mandate was created to help companies take action to protect their interests by protecting freshwater. "No one wants to be associated with dead fish in a dry river," says Stuart Orr, WWF International Freshwater Manager. "WWF can help companies address water issues from an environmental perspective, and the CEO Water Mandate can help them take it further by advocating for long-term policy solutions that benefit business, communities and nature."

A focal point of the group's sixth working conference in Cape Town, South Africa, was the launch of the "Guide to Responsible Business Engagement with Water Policy." Orr, co-author of the guide, says it's a framework to turn risk into opportunity. "Innovative partnerships at the local level are yielding important changes. Instead of guarding these successes like trade secrets, companies in the CEO Water Mandate are sharing lessons for the greater good."

Read the full article