Targeting Oil and Gas Companies for Failing to Adequately Disclose Water Risks

On December 3, a group of nearly 100 institutional investors representing $6 trillion in assets announced the launch of a campaign to promote sustainable water resource management in the oil & gas sector.

Water resource management is a growing challenge for the sector. Oil and gas production, including water-intense hydraulic fracturing (fracking), increasingly drains scarce local water resources and results in large volumes of wastewater. 

As water resources become increasingly constrained due to overconsumption, pollution and climate change, companies that treat water risks as a current strategic challenge and manage this resource sustainably will be better positioned in the future. Conversely, companies that ignore these challenges put themselves, their shareholders, and importantly, the planet and its people, at risk.