Water Canada | Full Disclosure

Water Canada | Full Disclosure

Molson Coors has chosen to focus on water as one of its corporate responsibility initiatives and acknowledges that disclosure is a critical component of this process. “Self disclosure and participation in initiatives like the United Nations CEO Water Mandate and the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Water Disclosure Initiative will both highlight the importance of water and also encourage other companies to participate,” says Glade. “Ultimately, companies that do not have water risk information readily available could be considered a bad investment.”

Effective water disclosure provides stakeholders with information on which to base decisions about their interaction with a company. This information contextualizes the scale and scope of water related exposures and specific at-risk operations or supply chains.

While the quality of water disclosure in corporate reports is improving, there’s still much work to be done to provide stakeholders with the information needed to make high quality decisions. In particular, disclosure of information such as regional water use and water recycling metrics is less advanced. A recent report from CERES—the U.S.-based coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations—indicated that businesses and investors are not fully taking into consideration the economic impact if water resources and that disclosure of risk and corporate water performance is weak. Similarly, a study commissioned by the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment’s CEO Water Mandate found that while most of the 110 companies analyzed provided data regarding their total water use, data on regional or local water use or any contextual information in which their water uses and/or impacts could be understood at the regional level was missing. Since water issues at the local or sub-regional level have potential to pose real risks to operations (for example, restricted water access, conflicts with other users, production delays), this represents a significant void in corporate water disclosure and indicates more work to be done.

While the devil is in the details, stakeholder information needs for business strategy and for corporate disclosure are relatively straightforward and fall into four categories:

How does water relate to business strategy? Stakeholders want to know how water issues can impact on short and long-term business strategy—the profile of operations, manufacturing approaches, products and services.

What risks and opportunities does water present? Stakeholders want to know what risks and opportunities water presents to the business. They want to understand potential impacts and what locations or regions are particularly exposed.

How is water managed? Stakeholders expect information on how an organization is managing water and mitigating risks to the business. They want to know who is responsible and what the company is trying to achieve with its water practices. They expect evidence of consideration of the use of management tools including process optimization, transportation efficiencies, reuse and recycling and financing of innovative water management efforts (for example, clean technology).

Is the company meeting water performance goals? Perhaps the most important information for stakeholders has to do with water performance against targets. This might include reporting on direct and indirect water use, consumption