Rob Lawson: Much has been written about water security risks to business, but to date there has been relatively little attention on the how this relates to the UK private sector.   Artesia Consulting (http://artesia-consulting.co.uk/) recently completed a project for WWF-UK to provide water stewardship resources to companies in the UK, with a focus on water quality improvement to support WFD objectives.  The report confirmed that few businesses operating in the UK appreciate potential water risks, which means that only a small number (e.g. those exposed to physical risks) currently take action.  Whilst government-led initiatives such as CaBA and catchment sensitive farming have been effective, the study demonstrated the potential for business to get more involved through collaboration, certification schemes and via existing frameworks for water stewardship.  A series of case studies are presented, illustrating the simple low-cost steps than can be taken to reduce water risk and increase business opportunities. The project was funded by WaterLIFE: an EC LIFE+ funded project led by WWF-UK in partnership with The Rivers Trust and Westcountry Rivers Trust.

The outputs from this project were incorporated into a new WWF-UK report: From Risk to resilience: Does your business know its water risk?

Artesia’s report can be found at http://waterlife.org.uk/2015/06/making-the-case-for-water-stewardship/ and the outputs from this project were incorporated into a new WWF-UK report: ‘From Risk to resilience: Does your business know its water risk?’ http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/wwf020_from_risk__to_resilience.pdf?_ga=1.260247054.2021008092.1432733380