Roundtable

Advancing Water Stewardship:
Creating Value for Business, Nature and Communities 

• 16.30 to 17.45 PM | 13 October 2025

Context

Europe’s industrial transformation is gaining momentum under the combined pressures of climate change, biodiversity loss, geopolitical instability, and resource constraints. As highlighted in the plenary discussion, sustainability has moved beyond compliance to become a core element of business strategy, shaping how companies operate, invest, and grow. 

Within this broader shift, water is emerging as a critical – yet often underleveraged – dimension of sustainable value creation. Its impact spans across production processes, supply chains, environmental assets and local communities, making it increasingly material to business performance. 

Yet, much of our freshwater ecosystems, and the biodiversity they support are under pressure. While the Earth is covered in vast amounts of water, freshwater is a finite and precious resource, threatened by pollution, overextraction and poorly planned infrastructure degrading ecosystems, aggravated by climate change.  

At the same time, expectations on business are rising. Companies are increasingly seen as key actors in advancing water protection both within their own operations and across their supplier networks. These expectations are reinforced by a growing public perception that water is a shared responsibility among public and private stakeholders. 

Leading companies are beginning to respond by reframing water as a strategic asset. This means integrating water into core risk assessments and decision-making, setting clear targets for efficiency and reuse, while investing in ecosystem restoration to strengthen long-term resilience, competitiveness, and reputation. Effective water stewardship also requires measuring impact in concrete terms at the level of the watersheds, such as volumetric water savings, basin-level replenishment ratios or reduced abstraction in water-stressed areas. 

In this context, nature-based solutions in freshwater ecosystems are emerging as key enablers. They offer cost-effective approaches to water management while delivering multiple co-benefits, including flood mitigation, water purification, erosion control, and climate adaptation. When implemented at scale, these solutions can help reduce pressure on freshwater resources and strengthen the resilience of entire watersheds. 

Water challenges cannot be addressed by individual actors alone. As a shared and locally governed resource, effective water management depends on collective action. Multi-stakeholder partnerships, built on trust, long-term commitment, and aligned incentives, are essential to scaling solutions and delivering lasting impact. 

Despite a strong policy foundation in Europe, progress remains uneven due to implementation gaps, regulatory instability and insufficient investments. This underscores the need for greater alignment between business strategy, public policy, investors and collaborative initiatives. 

In this context, advancing water stewardship is not only about mitigating risk. It is about redefining how value is created, linking business performance with ecosystem and community resilience.