Global Water Stewardship: Insights From the Field
Webinar Recap
As businesses around the world face mounting water-related challenges, proactive water stewardship has become more essential than ever. In this a recent live Q&A entitled, “Bridging Waters: A Global Panel on Sustainable Water Management Practices,” Nadia Jebbour, Head of International Sustainability Services at Antea Group France; Janaina Silva, Water Engineer at Antea Group Brasil; and Natalya Holm, Climate Risk & Water Stewardship Service Line Lead at Antea Group USA, discuss global trends, site-level actions, consumer pressure, supply chain engagement, and collective action for meaningful impact.
To view the whole conversation for yourself, watch the on-demand webinar.
Q: What are the main water-related challenges companies are currently facing?
Nadia Jebbour (France): More companies are questioning the long-term water sustainability of areas where they operate. Some are asking whether it’s even viable to keep a factory running in a given location due to concerns over water availability, quality, and reputational risk. Others are seeking water-secure sites before building new facilities to avoid costly mistakes like constructing state-of-the-art plants without enough water to operate.
Janaina Silva (Brazil): The conversation around water is growing in Latin America, but challenges remain:
- Increasing pressure on shared water sources, especially in areas with weak watershed governance
- Lack of reliable data to assess risk or measure effectiveness
- Difficulty engaging external stakeholders due to trust gaps or unclear responsibilities
- A need for better water stewardship indicators that are measurable, meaningful, and context-specific
Natalya Holm (USA): Water stewardship has evolved beyond being a reporting metric. Companies now view water as a business-critical resource. Whether it's physical risk to operations or reputational risk with consumers and stakeholders, water is increasingly viewed as a strategic priority.
Q: How are companies addressing water-related business continuity risks?
Nadia: Relocation is one option, but when staying in a water-stressed area is necessary, companies are investing in alternative sources—like deeper aquifers that don’t compete with public or agricultural supply—and they are setting stricter water reuse and recycling targets. There’s also growing interest in basin-level replenishment projects to support shared water sustainability.
Natalya: One of the first concepts I learned in water stewardship is that of a “healthy fish in a dry pond.” Even the most efficient factory can't thrive in an unsustainable watershed. That’s why we’re seeing a growing shift toward incorporating catchment-level action into enterprise risk management.
Q: Are consumers influencing corporate water stewardship?
Janaina: Yes, especially in water-intensive sectors like food and beverages. While still emerging in Latin America, companies are starting to include water stewardship more explicitly in sustainability communications and ESG reporting to build trust and transparency.
Nadia: Consumer awareness is growing. While carbon was once the primary focus, water is quickly gaining ground. Companies are responding with more visible water stewardship actions, such as public commitments, AWS certification, and strong water strategies, to demonstrate accountability.
Natalya: Consumer concerns about water are increasingly tied to brand trust. We’re also seeing a parallel trend where companies are the “consumer” and are demanding more transparency and resilience from their own suppliers to ensure business continuity.
Q: What about supply chain risks—how are companies engaging suppliers?
Nadia: Water risk in the supply chain is the next frontier. Many companies are just beginning to map water-related risks across their suppliers. Some are starting to require AWS certification or water-related disclosures during procurement to prioritize responsible suppliers and encourage improvement.
Janaina: In Latin America, agriculture supply chains are especially vulnerable. Companies are offering technical support, partnering with NGOs or universities, and promoting irrigation and soil management practices. The goal is to shift from transactional to collaborative relationships and emphasize shared responsibility.
Q: What’s the value of AWS certification?
Janaina: Applying the AWS Standard gives companies a structured, practical framework to understand water use, assess risks, engage stakeholders, and plan meaningful actions. Certification adds credibility and aligns efforts with global best practices. Facilities also benefit internally by turning water from a technical issue into a strategic business priority.
Nadia: It’s also a helpful starting point for companies that want to act but don’t know where to begin. The AWS framework guides both site-level and basin-level strategy.
Natalya: It’s a well-polished framework that helps companies develop structured, measurable water strategies that lead to real, site-specific and watershed-wide positive outcomes.
Q: Where are companies succeeding—and struggling—with basin-level engagement?
Nadia: Success often hinges on trust. Companies that invest time in building relationships, understanding stakeholder priorities, and engaging with basin-level institutions see better results. Struggles emerge when engagement is rushed, one-off, or out of sync with local dynamics. Having dedicated staff, or partnering with NGOs, helps build trust and coordination.
Janaina: Companies that treat engagement as a long-term investment see more meaningful results. Failures typically occur when companies don’t take time to understand local dynamics or treat stakeholders as partners. Aligning different actors’ timeframes and goals can also be a challenge.
Natalya: Success and struggle often go hand-in-hand. Before companies even reach external partners, they often have to navigate internal hurdles, such as legal, communications, and public relations, to align messaging and goals. Transparency is essential, but so is organizational readiness.
Q: What tools are missing to support collective action?
Janaina: We need:
- Reliable basin-level data to align understanding
- Long-term dialogue platforms beyond compliance
- Simple tools to evaluate, monitor, and share progress
- Local capacity-building for communities and institutions
Natalya: Maybe what we really need is "speed dating" for companies, stakeholders, and implementers, something to foster quick but meaningful connection and trust-building across sectors.
Nadia: We also need methodologies that go beyond volumetric water accounting to include qualitative and social impacts. Broader frameworks would help companies justify projects with meaningful co-benefits, even if they don’t deliver massive volume savings.
Q: Can you share real-world examples of successful basin-level projects?
Janaina: In southern Brazil, a payment for environmental services initiative supported local farmers to protect springs and riparian areas. Over 100 farmers participated, protecting 120+ springs and generating 60,000+ cubic meters of water benefits annually using volumetric water benefit accounting.
Nadia: In France, a small infrastructure project re-lined a faulty sewer pipeline to prevent clean spring water from unnecessarily entering the wastewater treatment system. It reduced overload and saved 180,000 cubic meters of water, all while improving local water quality. Even small projects can deliver big impacts.
Q: How are companies embracing circular water thinking?
Nadia: Clients are increasingly integrating the "small cycle" of water (onsite use, reuse, recycling) with the "big cycle" (where the water comes from and returns to). Historically, these were managed separately, but a holistic approach is emerging to view water as a complete system.
Janaina: Companies are connecting water stewardship with broader themes like land use, agriculture, and climate resilience. There’s a mindset shift from controlling water to sustaining it as a shared system.
Natalya: It’s encouraging to see the shift from reactive to proactive strategies. Long-term resilience requires collaboration at both site and watershed levels.
Bringing it All Together
As this global conversation shows, water stewardship is no longer a niche sustainability topic, it's a business imperative. From facility-level resilience to collective basin action, companies are increasingly recognizing their role in protecting shared water resources. While challenges remain, from data gaps to stakeholder engagement, the momentum is building toward more holistic, transparent, and proactive strategies. Whether you're just beginning your water journey or pursuing advanced certification, one thing is clear: collaboration and consistency are key to making a lasting impact.
Questions about your company’s water stewardship journey? Reach out to our team today!
Heading to the 10th annual Global Water Stewardship Forum with the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) in June? Connect with Antea Group there! We are co-sponsoring the event through the Inogen Alliance. Learn more here.
