Oakland, California, USA, Oct. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Pacific Institute, a global nonpartisan water think tank, today released an ambitious strategic plan outlining plans to accelerate the adoption of water resilience solutions across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. The strategy, which runs through 2026, positions the Pacific Institute to achieve its 2030 goal to “catalyze the transformation to water resilience in the face of climate change.” It focuses on four areas with outsized potential for accelerated impact: water equity, water efficiency and reuse, nature-based solutions, and corporate water stewardship.
“Climate change has radically intensified our water challenges. We need bold and immediate action to ensure our water systems are resilient for current and future generations,” said Jason Morrison, President of the Pacific Institute. “Generating evidence-based research and solutions remains core to our strategy. To accelerate our impact, we will sharpen our focus on speeding the implementation of proven solutions by governments, companies, frontline communities, and other levers of change. We will also increase our focus on engaging with networks and informing and influencing policies to unlock opportunities to scale solutions.”
Today, the Pacific Institute also announced a $1 million contribution from Pacific Institute Board Chair Sally Liu. The donation, given in honor of Ms. Liu’s late father, Chin-shu Liu, and in recognition of the legacy of Pacific Institute co-founder Dr. Peter Gleick, will seed a forthcoming campaign to fund expansion of the Pacific Institute’s impact through 2030.
“For nearly 40 years, the Pacific Institute has written the book on water. Now, it’s building a movement toward water resilience,” said Ms. Liu. “As the pioneer of many of the world’s leading solutions and a powerful convenor of decision-makers, from policymakers to CEOs, the Pacific Institute is uniquely positioned to catalyze this transformation. I invite others to support this critical work at this critical time—by investing in the organization at the epicenter of water solutions so deeply needed.”
Founded in the United States in 1987, the Pacific Institute is a global nonpartisan water think tank with more than 45 team members, including some of the world’s most highly respected water and climate thought leaders. Starting more than 30 years ago, the Pacific Institute conducted some of the earliest groundbreaking research highlighting the linkages between climate change and the potentially devastating impacts to water systems. In 2021, it published foundational research on water resilience, defining it as “the ability of water systems to function so that nature and people, including those on the frontlines and disproportionately impacted, thrive under shocks, stresses, and change.”
The four Impact Areas highlighted in the strategic plan represent areas of greatest need, solutions with the greatest opportunity to scale impact, and the Pacific Institute’s longstanding expertise in these areas.
Water equity: Globally, more than 2.2 billion people lack access to safe water and 4.2 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation. Frontline communities are often the first and worst impacted by the water-related impacts of climate change such as intensifying flooding and drought. The Pacific Institute’s new strategy builds on its legacy of prioritizing social equity, including influencing the United Nations’ decision to establish the Human Right to Water. The strategy will focus on generating new research, tools, and resources to ensure more people have access to safe water and sanitation, ensure frontline communities’ water practices and policies are resilient to climate change, and encourage utilities, businesses, and others to incorporate water equity in their own work.
Water efficiency and reuse: By 2030, total global water demand is projected to outstrip water supply by 40%. Recognizing the finite supply of the world’s total water and increasing demand for it, water efficiency and reuse are among the most cost-effective and least environmentally damaging ways to meet water needs. The new strategy builds upon the Pacific Institute’s history of producing groundbreaking research on these approaches that has informed and influenced policies and infrastructure investments. The strategy focuses on increasing investments in these solutions.
Nature-based solutions: By restoring, protecting, and sustainably managing natural ecosystems, including forests and wetlands, nature-based solutions address water quantity and quality issues, build resilience to the impacts of intensifying floods and droughts, and provide climate, biodiversity, and social co-benefits. For many years, the Pacific Institute has been known for its leading-edge research and tools on nature-based solutions for water. Under the new strategy, the Pacific Institute will continue to develop leading-edge tools, while working to accelerate investments in nature-based solutions by businesses, utilities, communities, and other implementers. The new strategy will also step up efforts to influence policies related to nature-based solutions for water at the local, regional, and national levels.
Corporate water stewardship: Businesses are major water users through their direct operations and across their value chains. The Pacific Institute’s new strategy elevates recognition of the role the private sector can play in building water resilience. While continuing to conduct research and develop innovative tools for companies, the Pacific Institute will increase its focus on convening companies to act in their own operations, inspire action across their supply chains, and take part in collective action in the world’s most water-stressed regions. The Pacific Institute will also identify and influence key shifts in public policy to unlock opportunities for scaling leading corporate water stewardship practices. This strategy builds on decades of expertise informing and mobilizing the business community. The CEO Water Mandate, a partnership between the Pacific Institute and the United Nations Global Compact, unites more than 360 companies committed to water stewardship practices. The related Water Resilience Coalition unites nearly 40 CEOs of some of the world’s most influential companies with operations in more than 140 countries to elevate water stress to the top of corporate agendas. By 2030, the Water Resilience Coalition aims to achieve positive water impact in 100 Priority Basins that support over 3 billion people’s water needs. It also aims to enable equitable and resilient water access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for 300 million people.
As part of the new strategy, the Pacific Institute will also continue its work on several critical nexus issues, including the role of water in conflict and the connection between water and energy.
The strategy highlights the critical role of strategic communications and outreach to scale water resilience solutions at the speed needed to reach its 2030 goal. The strategy focuses on connecting key stakeholders and audiences with proven water resilience solutions through extensive media coverage, including more than 13,000 media mentions annually; thought leadership and stakeholder convening at global events such as the United Nations General Assembly and World Economic Forum; and making solutions increasingly accessible to businesses, frontline communities, utilities, policymakers, governments, and other key levers of change.
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Founded in 1987, the Pacific Institute is a global nonpartisan water think tank that combines evidence-based thought leadership with active outreach to influence local, national, and international efforts to build water resilience.
