World Benchmarking Alliance+Reporting progress on reducing water pollutants

About the data

The WBA Nature Benchmark measures and ranks the world's most influential companies on their efforts to protect the environment and its biodiversity, tracking how companies are reducing their negative impacts on nature and contributing to the protection and restoration of ecosystems, aligned with the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The 2026 edition assessed 750 companies across multiple sectors including agro-food, forestry, building, tourism and the blue economy. The benchmark is developed in close collaboration with an Expert Review Committee and partners including GRI, SBTN, and TNFD, with a methodology designed to incentivise companies to understand where nature-related risks are highest and act to halt damaging trends, while keeping human rights and social impacts at its core.

More information can be found here.

Methodology

Approximately 80% of global wastewater is untreated when released back into the
environment, causing significant negative effects on both ecosystem functioning and human health
(IUCN, 2017). Water pollution not only degrades freshwater sources, contributing to the global water
crisis, but also threatens biodiversity. As industrial activities are a major contributor to water pollution,
companies have a responsibility to implement more effective and transparent wastewater treatment
and pollution control measures.The company must either report progress against targets or show absolute, year-on-year reductions for three consecutive years for all pollutants disclosed in element (a). Any increases in any pollutants would be Unmet.

Progress against a target is only accepted if the target is timebound and measurable as specified in the requirements in element (b).

License

CC BY 4.0

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