Big Business urged to ax risk by cutting water use

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Institutional investors are urging companies to measure, disclose and reduce their use of water to reduce long-term financial risks as supplies dry up from overuse and as higher temperatures melt glaciers away.

"Companies need to be analyzing their water risk ... and to find ways to conserve water and minimize the opportunities for literally having their business shut down," Mindy Lubber, the president of Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors. said in an interview.

Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of nearly 80 U.S. and European investors, such as retirement funds, that manages more than $7 trillion.

As shares in many companies reel from the economic crisis, a few are beginning to reassess their entire set of risks to regain the trust of investors.

Water waste has risen as a concern amid the 2007 drought in the U.S. Southeast, the current California water crisis and concerns that rising temperatures will eliminate mountain glaciers in China, India and other countries, leading to greatly reduced summer river flows.

"Where will the water come from if not from these glaciers?" said Jason Morrison, an expert at the Pacific Institute and lead author of "Water Scarcity and Climate Change," a report commissioned by Ceres released Thursday.

"Climate experts understand that water will become one of the most significantly affected resources as the result of climate change, but most in the private sector haven't appreciated that," he said.

The investors want companies to measure not only their direct use of water, like that used directly to make products, but also water used deeper down the supply chain.