The CEO Water Mandate organized a half-day off-site event during the UN General Aseembly week in New York to engage with their network on water stewardship. It gathered a variety of stakeholders including the Mandate’s endorser representatives, sustainability managers, water professionals, partner NGO directors and managers, and government cooperation representatives. Among others, Elim Sritaba, the Chief Sustainability Officer of the Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) Sinar Mas and the Board of Founder of IGCN was present in this session as an active endorser of the CEO Water Mandate.
The half-day event comprised of three sessions:
- “Scaling Positive Water Impact in 100 Basins”, discussing on how to leverage collective action to achieve positive water impact in the CEO Water Mandate’s 100 priority water basins
- “Water Stewardship Networking Lunch”, connecting leaders in the global water stewardship community over a catered lunch
- “Demonstrations of Positive Water Impact & Returns: Collective Corporate Investment Opportunities for our 2030 Ambition”, showcasing the measurable impact that collective corporate investments could unleash to achieve positive water impact goals that also unlock new sources of financing for water resilience
The Water Resilience Coalition, an industry-driven, CEO-led initiative between the UN Global Compact and the Pacific Institute that aims to put water stress at the top of corporate agendas, during the same week announced new progress on its 2030 strategy to convene the private sector to build global water resilience. With the announcement, there are 21 collective action projects now underway to build water resilience in 15 water-stressed river basins across Asia, Africa, South America, and North America. Since the Coalition’s launch in 2020, 35 global companies across multiple sectors with a combined market cap of US$4.8 trillion and operations in more than 140 countries have joined the effort.
By 2030, the strategy aims to build water resilience in 100 Priority Basins identified on the Water Action Hub, contributing to water security for three billion people and enabling equitable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for more than 300 million people. Basin projects currently focus on climate-resilient WASH and investments in nature-based solutions with climate co-benefits.
Since announcing its 2030 strategy in mid-2022, the Water Resilience Coalition has also launched the innovative Water Resilience Coalition Investment Portfolio, advanced the digitization of water basin monitoring through a partnership with the European Space Agency, and piloted the Net Positive Water Impact (NPWI) framework for water resilience.
