CEO Water Mandate and Water Resilience Coalition Announce New Progress in Engaging Private Sector to Act on Water

NEW YORK, March 20, 2025 /CNW/ -- Ahead of World Water Day, the Water Resilience Coalition—a CEO-led initiative driving corporate action on water stress—announced the addition of two new members: Grundfos and Haleon. This expansion brings the Coalition's membership to 40 leading companies, collectively representing a market capitalization exceeding US$5 trillion.

The Water Resilience Coalition is an initiative of the CEO Water Mandate, a partnership between the Pacific Institute and the United Nations Global Compact. By 2030, the Coalition aims to unite a critical mass of companies to build water resilience in their operations and supply chains, while also investing in collective action to improve water resilience in 100 Priority Basins, the most water-stressed basins in the world.

In addition, the Water Resilience Coalition announced that Heineken, alongside a key partner have intensified efforts to enhance water resilience in the Rio Bravo River Basin, which spans the United States and Mexico. Their commitment will drive impactful collaborations in this Priority Basin, advancing collective action for sustainable water management.

"The momentum we are seeing—from new members to deepened corporate leadership in priority basins—demonstrates that water stewardship is no longer optional. It's a business and sustainability imperative," said Jason Morrison, Head of the CEO Water Mandate. "Leading companies, including Heineken, are playing a catalytic role in advancing action in water-stressed basins around the globe by supporting collaborative infrastructure and services for scaling and tracking strategic, multi-funder investment opportunities for basin-wide impact."

More than 60 companies have also endorsed the CEO Water Mandate in 2025, bringing the total number of companies to 478. These companies have committed to continuous progress building water resilience across their direct operations, supply chains, watershed management, and other areas.

About the CEO Water Mandate

The CEO Water Mandate is a partnership between the UN Global Compact and the Pacific Institute that mobilizes business leaders on water, sanitation, and the Sustainable Development Goals for corporate water stewardship. Mandate endorsers commit to continuous progress against six core elements (direct operations, supply chain and watershed management, collective action, public policy, community engagement, and transparency) and in so doing understand and manage their own water risks. Established in 2007, the CEO Water Mandate was created out of the acknowledgement that global water challenges create risk for a wide range of industry sectors, the public sector, local communities, and ecosystems alike

About the Water Resilience Coalition

The Water Resilience Coalition is an industry-driven, CEO-led initiative of the CEO Water Mandate that aims to elevate the long-term mounting crisis of global water stress to the top of the corporate agenda and to preserve the world's freshwater resources through collective action in water-stressed basins and ambitious, quantifiable commitments.

About the UN Global Compact

As a special initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General, the UN Global Compact is a call to companies worldwide to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Our ambition is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 18,000 companies and 3,800 non-business signatories based in over 101 countries, and 62 Local Networks, the UN Global Compact is the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative—one Global Compact uniting business for a better world.

About the Pacific Institute

Founded in 1987, the Pacific Institute is a global water think tank that combines science-based thought leadership with active outreach to influence local, national, and international efforts in developing sustainable water policies. From working with Fortune 500 companies to frontline communities, our mission is to create and advance solutions to the world's most pressing water challenges. Since 2009, the Pacific Institute has also acted as co-secretariat for the CEO Water Mandate, a global commitment platform that mobilizes a critical mass of business leaders to address global water challenges through corporate water stewardship.

SOURCE United Nations Global Compact