This section explores the nuances of global water challenges, featuring insights by our researchers, collaborative pieces with our partners, and Q&A styled dialogues with industry experts. It complements our work by providing context, commentary, and a deeper understanding of our research findings.
Freight Transport Justice
Freight transport, or the movement of products and raw materials via truck, train, ship or plane, is a major source of unhealthy diesel pollution and other adverse impacts that disproportionately affect low-income communities, communities of color, and workers.
Corporate Water Disclosure
Corporate water disclosure – the act of collecting data on the current state of a company’s water management, assessing the implications of this information for the business, developing a strategic response, and ultimately reporting this information to stakeholders (investors, NGOs, consumers, communities, suppliers, employees, and others) – is a critical component of a company’s water management efforts and water-related sustainability more generally.
Corporate Water Assessment
Companies’ ability to measure and understand their water use and corollary risks and impacts is key to effectively mitigating specific water problems and becoming responsible water stewards.
Conflicts Over Water
There are complex and real links between water and conflict. While water resources have rarely been the sole source of violent conflict or war, there is a long history of tensions and violence over access to water resources, attacks on water systems, and the use of water systems as weapons during war.
Community Resilience to Climate Change
Those who have historically contributed the least to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions warming our planet often stand to be most affected by the localized adverse impacts that these will have on community health and quality of life. These localized impacts, ranging from extreme heat to rising sea levels, will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations such as the elderly, renters, low-income residents, those with pre-existing medical conditions, and those without health or home insurance.
Community Mapping Initiative
Maps are powerful tools for analyzing and communicating how environmental hazards and resources are distributed in a given place.
Climate Change Vulnerability and Resilience
The science of climate change is compelling and strong, and has been for over two decades, telling us that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities not only will change, but are already changing the climate. The Pacific Institute, since its founding in 1987, has been addressing many of these vulnerabilities to climate change.
Climate Change Resilience in Developing Countries
Thousands of cities in the developing world are facing rising pressures on institutions and infrastructure due to population growth and urbanization. Hundreds of thousands of people globally wake up each day wondering where they will get water, how long they will wait for it, how much they will pay for it, what the quality of that water will be, and whether that water will be there tomorrow.
Climate Change and Water
Since its founding, the Pacific Institute has been at the forefront of research on the impacts of climate change on water resources and on strategies to reduce those impacts. The water cycle and the climate cycle are inextricably linked.
The CEO Water Mandate
The UN CEO Water Mandate is a unique public-private initiative – established by the UN Global Compact in 2007 and endorsed by global companies from a variety of industry sectors – designed to assist companies in the development, implementation, and disclosure of corporate water stewardship practices and policies.