RISING TO RESILIENCE

The document argues that climate change acts as a 'risk multiplier' for water security, affecting all businesses regardless of their direct water reliance. It proposes a four-step process—Assess Risk, Develop Strategy, Implement Solutions, and Monitor/Adapt—to move companies from simple sustainability to long-term climate resilience. The report emphasizes the superiority of nature-based solutions over purely engineered infrastructure and advocates for collective, basin-level action over isolated site-level management.

• Climate change functions as a risk amplifier for water security, with WWF modeling suggesting that by 2050, up to 51% of the global population will experience high levels of water risk.
• Water risks impact all businesses across their entire value chain, including non-water-intensive sectors, through disruptions in commodity production, damage to capital infrastructure, and logistics failures such as stranded distribution centers due to floods or grounded barge traffic due to drought.
• WWF proposes a four-step integration process for businesses: 1) Assessing current and future water risks using climate-linked scenarios; 2) Developing strategies that manage for change rather than persistence; 3) Implementing contextual, nature-based solutions; and 4) Establishing monitoring and adaptive management systems.
• Nature-based solutions are presented as more cost-effective and resilient than traditional engineered infrastructure, such as dams or drip irrigation, which can have unintended consequences like exacerbating floods or increasing water demand.
• Effective climate resilience cannot be achieved at a single site scale; it requires collective action and partnerships at the river basin level to address systemic landscape vulnerabilities.
• The Coca-Cola Company applied this framework in Guatemala's Pasabien watershed, utilizing early warning systems for drought and flooding and selecting reforestation tree species specifically adapted to changing climate conditions.

APA

Morgan, A., Tanner, N., Kuhn, D., & Sapiro, U. (n.d.). RISING TO RESILIENCE. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1604/WWF_WaterStewardship_HR_rev.pdf

Chicago

Morgan, Alexis, Nicole Tanner, David Kuhn, and Ulrike Sapiro. RISING TO RESILIENCE. WWF International, n.d. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1604/WWF_WaterStewardship_HR_rev.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Morgan |first1=Alexis |last2=Tanner |first2=Nicole |last3=Kuhn |first3=David |last4=Sapiro |first4=Ulrike |title=RISING TO RESILIENCE |publisher=WWF International |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1604/WWF_WaterStewardship_HR_rev.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{morganndrising, author = {Morgan, Alexis and Tanner, Nicole and Kuhn, David and Sapiro, Ulrike}, title = {{RISING TO RESILIENCE}}, institution = {WWF International}, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1604/WWF_WaterStewardship_HR_rev.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }