Giving Compass' Take:

• Unsurprisingly, more investors are focusing on global food companies that put more effort into water risk management and sustainability. 

• How can philanthropists help larger corporations with sustainability initiatives? 

• Read about tech services that are offered to food and beverage companies that help them with sustainability. 

Among global food companies, there is a so-called drought of water-aware boards of directors. And for an industry that uses 70 percent of the world’s fresh water, on a warming planet with scarcer resources, that lack of awareness is a concern.

Investors are zeroing in on how companies are tackling water and sustainability risks, and increasingly they’re focusing on the board room.  In a recent Ernst & Young survey of some 320 investors, more than 75 percent said that mandatory board oversight of sustainability disclosures is 'essential" or "very useful" when making decisions about whether or not to invest in a company.

Little wonder. Companies that have strong board oversight on sustainability issues, including water, send a signal to investors that they’re serious about these issues. And experts have long asserted that businesses perform better on actual indicators of sustainability when their boards are engaged.

Now Ceres has research to back up the strength of this connection.

In an update of our Feeding Ourselves Thirsty analysis, we found that among the 42 major food & beverage companies that we benchmarked on water risk management, there was a strong link between stronger governance and companies that performed well across the other categories, including operations and supply chain.

Read the full article about companies neglecting water sustainability by Eliza Roberts at TriplePundit.