Water Resilience Coalition Transitions to New Structure to Accelerate Global Water Resilience Action

September 21, 2026 - The Water Resilience Coalition (WRC), an industry-driven initiative focused on implementing collective action to address global water challenges, today announced that it is becoming a subsidiary of the Pacific Institute, separately incorporated outside of the UN Global Compact. This transition reflects the initiative's maturity and growth and enables the administrative, governance, financial, and participation models necessary to achieve the WRC's unique mission as an implementing partner.

Founded in 2020 under the CEO Water Mandate through a collaboration between the UN Global Compact and the Pacific Institute, the WRC has evolved significantly in response to the growing urgency of global water stress and the needs of its member companies. Its ambition to achieve Positive Water Impact (PWI) in 100 Priority Basins around the globe and provide WASH access to 300 million people has driven the development of new models for collective action, including basin-level collaboration platforms, innovative financing mechanisms, digital monitoring tools, and direct PWI implementation support.

The transition also reflects the distinct and complementary roles of the WRC and the CEO Water Mandate. The CEO Water Mandate advances corporate water stewardship through thought leadership, capacity building, leveraging the UN system, and connecting companies with action partners. The WRC, building on its incubation within the CEO Water Mandate and UN Global Compact, serves as an implementing partner focused on translating corporate ambition into action.

Together, these complementary roles strengthen the broader water stewardship community and provide companies with clear pathways to engage-from building knowledge and capacity around corporate water stewardship and collective action to joining and supporting basin-level work.

While the WRC is now separately incorporated, the UN Global Compact remains an important partner to the Coalition. "Water is one of the defining challenges of our time, and advancing water resilience requires strong partnerships across the private sector, the UN system,
governments, and civil society. As the Water Resilience Coalition enters this next chapter, we look forward to continuing our partnership through the CEO Water Mandate and working together to accelerate meaningful action on water resilience around the world ", said Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact"

As the WRC's parent organization, the Pacific Institute will continue to manage the initiative, drawing on its longstanding role in supporting the Coalition since its founding and providing continuity as the WRC advances its ambitious agenda under its new structure. "This transition creates greater clarity around the complementary roles of the CEO Water Mandate and the WRC. We are proud of the WRC's growth and look forward to continuing to support its work through the Pacific Institute's role as the WRC's parent organization, while advancing corporate water stewardship through the CEO Water Mandate." said Jason Morrison, President of the Pacific Institute and Head of the CEO Water Mandate.

"The WRC has reached an exciting inflection point," said Matt Kistler, CEO of the Water Resilience Coalition. "This new chapter gives us the structure and flexibility to build on the momentum we have created and significantly scale our impact. We are entering this next phase with a clear ambition and a strong foundation for growth."