As climate pressures intensify, industries expand, and demand for freshwater continues to grow, organizations are increasingly recognizing that water is no longer simply an environmental consideration. It is becoming a strategic business issue that influences operational resilience, supply chain security, investment decisions, and long-term economic growth.
These themes were front and center at the 2026 Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Global Water Stewardship Forum, which brought together business leaders, policymakers, NGOs, technical experts, and water practitioners from around the world to explore the future of water stewardship.
As a proud sponsor for the fourth consecutive year of the AWS Forum, Inogen Alliance was pleased to participate in conversations shaping the future of sustainable water management. We were represented by ten global attendees from our thirteen Associate co-sponsors around the world (Antea Group UK, Antea Brasil, Antea Group France, Antea Group USA, Baden Consulting in Switzerland, Brown & Green in Philippines, CDG Environmental in Costa Rica, Chola MS Risk Services Limited (CMSRS) in India, HPC France, HPC Italy, Mediterra in Spain, Sustainera Solutions in Azerbaijan and Tonkin + Taylor in New Zealand). Francisco Cordero of Antea Group USA moderated a panel discussion on behalf of Inogen Alliance, which included Rajadurai C from Chola MS Risk presenting on behalf of Unilever during one of the Water Stories sessions. Together, these discussions highlighted how organizations across industries are embedding water stewardship into business strategy while addressing increasingly complex water-related risks.
Five themes consistently emerged throughout the AWS Forum that illustrate where responsible water management is headed next.
Key agenda items
- Water is a Strategic Business Priority
- Water Stewardship Is Expanding Beyond the Fence Line
- Collaboration, Governance, and Trusted Standards Enable Action
- Better Data Is Driving Better Decisions
- The Future of Water Stewardship Is Integrated
- Looking Ahead
- How Inogen Alliance Can Help
1. Water is a Strategic Business Priority
One of the strongest messages was that water has moved well beyond environmental compliance.
Across multisectoral discussions on industry, infrastructure, agriculture, finance, manufacturing, and public policy, water was consistently positioned as a strategic issue that affects business continuity, supply chain resilience, economic competitiveness, public health, and long-term investment.
Organizations are increasingly recognizing water as a core part of sustainability strategy and are now focused on how it shapes business continuity, future growth, and long-term value creation.
This shift is also becoming evident within public policy. Discussions explored how governments are beginning to integrate water into broader risk preparedness strategies that support industrial development, climate adaptation, infrastructure investment, and economic security. At the same time, investors, insurers, and financial institutions are placing greater emphasis on water-related risks as part of investment and lending decisions.
A consistent theme that stood out: water efficiency alone does not create water resilience.
While efficient systems optimize performance under expected conditions, future-ready systems are designed to adapt to uncertainty, absorb disruption, and recover from changing conditions. As climate variability, population growth, competing water demands, and geopolitical pressures continue to reshape water availability around the world, the ability to adapt and recover is just as important as efficiency.
Water was consistently described as an enabler of robust business operations, sustainable communities, and long-term economic development. Rather than treating water stewardship as a compliance exercise, many businesses are now embedding it within enterprise risk management, investment planning, and corporate strategy.
2. Water Stewardship Is Expanding Beyond the Fence Line
Another theme was the growing recognition that many of an organization’s most significant water-related risks exist beyond its own facilities.
Historically, stewardship strategies focused primarily on improving operational efficiency, reducing water consumption, and managing wastewater within company sites. While these remain important priorities, discussions throughout the event demonstrated that businesses are seeing the need to shift their attention toward the wider watershed and the complex value chains that support their operations.
Across sectors including technology, consumer goods, retail, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, and the luxury industry, organizations shared how they are broadening their understanding of water dependencies throughout global supply chains.
Instead of asking only how much water a facility consumes, businesses are now examining where products are sourced, how suppliers interact with local water resources, which river basins face increasing stress, and how upstream activities may influence future operational continuity.
Several sessions highlighted an important challenge: many organizations have made significant progress in mapping their supply chains, but relatively few have fully integrated water-related risks into enterprise decision-making. Simply knowing where suppliers operate is no longer sufficient. Organizations increasingly need localized understanding of watershed conditions, regulatory developments, climate projections, and community needs in order to strengthen supply chain preparedness. This shift represents a fundamental evolution in water stewardship.
Organizations are moving from site-level management toward basin-scale thinking, recognizing that resilient operations depend upon healthy watersheds and thriving communities. Responsible water management is becoming less about individual facilities and more about understanding the interconnected systems that support entire industries.
The Water Stories sessions illustrated this evolution across multiple sectors. Examples demonstrated how mature organizations are embedding basin-level assessments into investment decisions, strengthening supplier engagement, incorporating water considerations earlier into facility planning, and investing in projects that improve water security beyond their direct operations.
Whether supporting agricultural communities, manufacturing supply chains, or rapidly growing data center developments, one message remained consistent: long-term business strength depends upon healthy, reliable watersheds.
3. Collaboration, Governance, and Trusted Standards Enable Action
While organizations increasingly recognize the importance of water stewardship, the AWS Forum also reinforced that meaningful progress cannot be achieved by individual organizations acting alone.
Many speakers emphasized that meaningful progress depends on collaboration between businesses, governments, local communities, NGOs, researchers, technical experts, and civil society organizations.
This was particularly evident in discussions around collective action. Case studies from multiple regions demonstrated how partnerships between public and private organizations are improving watershed health, restoring ecosystems, strengthening local livelihoods, and building resilience across entire river basins.
Instead of competing for limited water resources, organizations are increasingly working together to identify shared challenges, establish common priorities, and develop collaborative solutions that benefit both businesses and communities.
Civil society organizations were highlighted as essential contributors to this process. Beyond implementing projects, they play a critical role in generating trusted evidence, amplifying community voices, convening stakeholders with competing interests, and strengthening accountability. Their ability to bridge the gap between local communities, governments, and industry helps ensure that stewardship initiatives are grounded in both scientific evidence and local realities.
The Forum also highlighted the continued evolution of the AWS Standard following the launch of Version 3.0. Now, the AWS framework is much more than a certification programme. It provides organizations with a practical methodology for understanding water risks, engaging stakeholders, measuring progress, and driving continuous improvement within local catchments.
Alongside the AWS Standard, discussions explored increasing alignment between internationally recognized frameworks and standards supporting climate, nature, corporate disclosure, and quality management. While each serves a different purpose, together they are helping organizations create more consistent approaches to understanding, measuring, and managing water-related risks across both direct operations and supply chains.
Ultimately, governance, transparency, and trusted standards provide the common language that allows diverse stakeholders to collaborate effectively. As water challenges continue to grow in complexity, these shared frameworks will become increasingly important for building confidence, demonstrating progress, and scaling collective action.
4. Better Data Is Driving Better Decisions
Another recurring theme was the growing importance of better data, measurement, and transparency in advancing water stewardship.
Organizations increasingly recognize that effective decision-making depends on understanding where water-related risks exist, how they are evolving over time, and what actions will have the greatest impact. Many speakers explored how improved monitoring, basin modelling, watershed assessments, and emerging approaches to water accounting are helping organizations move beyond reactive management toward more informed, strategic decision-making.
Also highlighted was the need for more consistent approaches to measuring water-related impacts and dependencies across value chains. Unlike carbon, where standardized accounting methodologies are well established, water presents a more complex challenge because risks are highly location-specific and influenced by factors including water quantity, quality, timing, governance, and competing demands.
As reporting expectations continue to evolve, organizations are seeking practical frameworks that help identify material water-related risks, prioritize investment, strengthen corporate governance, and translate disclosure into meaningful action.
At the same time, advances in digital technologies are enabling organizations to improve decision-making through enhanced monitoring, scenario modelling, and data visualization. These tools provide greater visibility into watershed conditions and help organizations evaluate future risks, identify opportunities for collaboration, and measure the effectiveness of stewardship initiatives over time with greater accuracy.
Throughout the Forum, one message remained clear: better data alone does not solve water challenges, but it enables better decisions, stronger partnerships, and more effective stewardship. Innovation may accelerate progress, but people remain at the heart of effective water stewardship.
5. The Future of Water Stewardship Is Integrated
The most significant shift discussed was the move toward more integrated approaches to water stewardship.
Organizations are increasingly connecting water with climate adaptation, biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, supply chain sustainability, public health, community development, and long-term business continuity, instead of treating water as a standalone sustainability issue.
Ultimately, there is growing recognition that healthy watersheds depend on healthy ecosystems. As a result, organizations are starting to invest in nature-based solutions that deliver multiple benefits, including improving water quality, restoring ecosystems, supporting biodiversity, strengthening climate resilience, and creating more sustainable agricultural landscapes.
Several sessions also explored how new financing mechanisms and market-based approaches may help accelerate investment in water stewardship. While these approaches continue to evolve, they reflect growing interest in mobilizing private capital, improving transparency, and supporting projects that generate measurable benefits for both businesses and the communities that depend on shared water resources.
Equally important was the recognition that successful water management requires collaboration across disciplines. Engineers, sustainability professionals, financial institutions, policymakers, NGOs, researchers, and local communities all bring different perspectives and expertise. Bringing these groups together creates stronger, more durable solutions than any single organization can achieve independently.
The Forum also demonstrated that innovation extends beyond technology. New governance models, collaborative partnerships, financing approaches, and integrated sustainability strategies are helping organizations rethink how water stewardship creates value not only for business operations, but also for the broader social, environmental, and economic systems in which they operate.
Ultimately, the future of sustainable water management lies in using this shared resource more responsibly while helping communities, businesses, and ecosystems withstand change through integrated, collaborative action.
6. Looking Ahead
The 2026 AWS Global Water Stewardship Forum made clear that the conversation around water is evolving.
Leading organizations are moving beyond operational water efficiency toward broader strategies that strengthen water resilience, improve governance, support basin health, and create shared value for businesses, communities, and the environment. At the same time, policymakers, investors, industry leaders, and civil society are recognizing that meaningful progress depends on collaboration, transparency, scientific evidence, and practical implementation.
Together, these shifts point to a more mature approach to corporate water stewardship, one that connects business strategy with watershed health, value chain resilience, trusted collaboration, and more informed decision-making.
For organizations operating across multiple regions, these discussions reinforce an important principle: while water challenges are inherently local, the most effective solutions combine global best practices with local knowledge, stakeholder engagement, and practical action.
As the AWS Standard continues to evolve, and organizations place greater emphasis on resilience, collective action, and long-term value creation, responsible water management will remain a critical foundation for sustainable business success.
7. How Inogen Alliance Can Help
Developing an effective water stewardship strategy requires more than understanding global frameworks; it requires local expertise, practical implementation, and meaningful stakeholder engagement.
Through a global network of local environmental and sustainability experts, Inogen Alliance helps organizations assess water-related risks, implement the AWS Standard, identify basin-level priorities, engage stakeholders, and develop responsible water strategies that strengthen resilience across operations and supply chains.
Whether your organization is beginning its water stewardship journey or building on existing initiatives, our team combines global thinking with local delivery to help create practical, measurable outcomes that benefit both business performance and the watersheds in which you operate.
Learn more about Inogen Alliance’s Water Stewardship services and discover how our global network of experts can help your organization build long-term water resilience.
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