Water plays a pivotal role in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to build resilience safeguarding ecosystems and communities.
World Water Week 2025 will focus on addressing the linked emergencies of climate change, environment degradation and biodiversity loss, emphasising both mitigation and adaptation, alongside the broader goal of enhancing resilience.
Fair Water Footprints will be active throughout the conference. Specific side events include the below:
Location: Online and in Stockholm, Sweden
All timings are CEST
Tuesday, 26 August
How can we establish water stewardship as the global business norm?
Time: 8-11am
Venue: Conference 1, Convendum, Vasagatan 16, Stockholm
Hosts: FWF partners
Join this interactive workshop, as part of a Fair Water Footprints – Waterlogues adjacent/WWW fringe event, to shape priorities and partnerships for scaling water stewardship.
Practitioners will reflect on lessons from two decades of action to co-create a shared agenda for systemic change and test the Fair Water Footprints theory of change.
Water Stewardship Stocktake 2025 (continued)
Time: 8.30-12pm
Venue: 16 Vasagatan 111 20 Stockholm
Hosts: FWF partners
In the face of global instability, realising the full potential of water stewardship for shared water security and resilience demands evidence-based strategies, bold new tactics, and transformational collaboration.
Join the Fair Water Footprint (FWF) partners for this half-day practitioner workshop to reflect on the past decade of practice, new evidence, and stakeholder insights to:
- Shape priorities for collective action, research, policy and advocacy
- Clarify strategic roles, resource needs and opportunities for collaboration
- Scope interest in a joint agenda setting paper, and inputs to UN Water 2026
Evolving corporate approaches to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
Time: 12.30-1.30pm
Venue: 16 Vasagatan 111 20 Stockholm
Hosts: WaterAid
Corporate water security and WASH initiatives are increasingly a strategic investment in business resilience rather than philanthropy. We are starting to see glimmers of a transition from largely ad-hoc CSR/sustainability or corporate foundation funded WASH projects to strategically targeted WASH programs but not yet a change of approach at the scale required to achieve lasting improvements in business resilience, worker and basin health. This session explores opportunities to bridge business operational realities with strategic WASH engagement to deliver business value, social and environmental impact.
Join WaterAid and corporate leaders for a dynamic panel on how leading companies are identifying water security and WASH impact hotspots across their value chains, aligning investments where challenges are most material, and leveraging collective action for scalable solutions. Hear real-world experiences from corporate peers and discuss ways to bridge the gap between on-the-ground needs and corporate decision-making frameworks for effective strategic improvements in water security and WASH provision.
Unlocking outcomes for climate, water and nature through collective actions
Time: 1.45-2.45pm
Venue: Convendum (Vasagatan 16)
Hosts: The Nature Conservancy, Nature for Water Facility, CEO Water Mandate, Pacific Institute, Diageo, WWF, and The Coca-Cola Company
This session will discuss the importance of nature-based solutions, their multiple outcomes, and how to calculate their impact on water security, climate adaptation, and biodiversity. Three case studies will be shared followed by a panel discussion and interactive Q&A.
‘Money, Money, Money’
Borrowing its title from Swedish pop legends ABBA and their iconic anthem of aspiration over penury”in a rich man’s world…” this wide-ranging session will explore the evolving landscape of finance for water. From water security and stewardship to water-tech and collective action, we’ll unpack the latest thinking and practical approaches shaping the sector.
Session chair Alex Money of University of Oxford and Watermarq will open with an argument for reframing the narrative on the value of water. WWF will outline recommendations from their recent report targeting central banks and financial regulators. Resilient Water Accelerator will update on their ambitions to create deal pipelines for water-intensive SMEs. DEG will outline their water-related work with commercial banks and private sector clients. ADB will present its upcoming, flagship data product in the water sector, the Asian Water Development Outlook for 2025.
The session is convened by AWS and presented as part of the water stewardship community’s two-day Stockholm Side Event series, held offsite during World Water Week at Convendum, a 5-minute walk from SIWI. Emphasising dialogue and setting up some of the discussions for Day 2, panellists and audience will be encouraged to interact in making progress on “all the things we could do / if we had a little money”.
Time: 3-4pm
Venue: 16 Vasagatan 111 20 Stockholm
Hosts: Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS)
From drops to diversity: accounting for biodiversity benefits in corporate water strategies (CWS)
Time: 4.15pm (TBC)
Venue: 16 Vasagatan 111 20 Stockholm
Hosts: CEO Water Mandate
Water and biodiversity are closely linked, but corporate water strategies often overlook biodiversity co-benefits. This session introduces Biodiversity Benefit Accounting (BioBA), a new framework helping businesses integrate biodiversity into water stewardship efforts through standardized metrics and credible reporting. Hear from experts on how BioBA supports disclosure, investment, and ecosystem resilience, with insights from early pilot applications.
Wednesday, 27 August
Raising our voice: how can companies engage in water policy advocacy in the current climate?
Time: 8.30-9.30am
Venue: Convendum, Vasagatan 16, Stockholm
Hosts: WWF
WWF’s water stewardship ladder has always framed “engagement in water governance” as a key part of the water stewardship journey for companies. Recent studies have showed a very strong, politically bi-partisan desire for companies to engage on water-related policy across all surveyed countries. In the face of this appetite from the public and its key role in stewardship, but also in light of a challenging political environment, the question arises: how do companies engage in water policy?
This session will explore some of WWF’s latest efforts to begin to prepare companies to engage on policy and will solicit audience input on the development of a water policy advocacy playbook to be released in the months ahead.
Food security in a changing climate: embedding Fair Water Footprints
Time: 9-10.30am
Venue: WWW Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre, Room A4, Level 6
Hosts: FWF partners
Explore how fair water use in global food production is key to addressing climate resilience and rising hunger. With case studies from Peru, Morocco, and Malawi, the session will showcase how collective action is embedding water security into agriculture.
WaterLogues – Stockholm 2025
Time: 10am-6pm
Venue: Convendum, Vasagatan 16, Stockholm
Hosts: FWF partners
The Stockholm WaterLogues will host two dialogues. Attendees are free to attend both or a specific one but registration is required.
Dialogue 1 (10am-12pm): Towards open and accessible catchment data and monitoring
This dialogue will explore pathways for the establishment of open and accessible catchment-level data and monitoring to help establish a common baseline for the status of a catchment, monitoring the improvements to the status of the catchment because of actions being taken and improve the efficiency of data collection and access. This dialogue will recap and build on previous discussions from Edinburgh 2024 and other initiatives.
Dialogue 2 (1-4.30pm): Collective policy and regulatory engagement ahead of UN Water 2026
This dialogue will revisit the recommended policy intervention work done by select members of the water stewardship community ahead of the last UN Water conference, update if need be, and then identify pathways for how NGOs and corporate actors can collectively engage policy makers and regulatory bodies ahead of UN Water 2026 event.
Just transitions: climate secure futures built on water secure foundations
Time: 11am–12.30pm
Venue: WWW Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre, Room C1, Level 2
Hosts: FWF partners
Discover how the Just Transition for Water Security programme, of which FWF is an integral part, is embedding water into climate plans and scaling solutions across five countries. Hear from partners on financing, policy tools, and collective action that make climate resilience a reality.
Thursday 28 August
Taking action with freshwater science-based targets for business resilience
Time: 11am-12.30pm
Venue: C3, Level 2 | Session ID 12322
Hosts: FWF partners
Discover how businesses are using science-based targets to drive freshwater action and strengthen climate resilience. Learn from the Science Based Targets Network and leading companies as they share real-world insights into water stewardship, biodiversity investments and building resilience in river basins.
The session will highlight the synergy between nature and climate strategies, and the critical role of partnerships in delivering impactful solutions.
Climate Shark: real world examples of climate resilience through water security
Time: 2-3pm
Venue: Online | Session ID 12217
Hosts: FWF partners
Water is at the front line of climate impacts. Join this session to hear how civil society, media, and legal tools are driving water and climate justice across Africa. Featuring real-world cases from Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
