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Rethinking Water: Resilience, Risk, and Opportunity

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Is Water Still Just a Utility?

Water is often viewed as a dependable utility—readily available, low-cost, and consistently accessible. It supports industrial operations, sustains communities, and underpins economic development. Yet this long-standing perception is increasingly at odds with current realities.

Today, more than two billion people live in regions experiencing high water stress. By 2050, that number is projected to exceed five billion, driven by population growth, urbanization, industrial expansion, and the intensifying impacts of climate change. These trends are not only humanitarian concerns—they also signal growing operational and strategic risks for businesses that rely on stable and predictable access to water.

Water Systems are Currently Under Pressure

Climate change is altering precipitation patterns, intensifying droughts and floods, and introducing greater variability into water availability. These shifts are not occurring in isolation. In many regions, aging infrastructure is already strained by rising demand from growing populations and expanding industrial activity. These pressures are converging to expose water systems to a spectrum of systemic risks, from scarcity and contamination to infrastructure failure and regulatory non-compliance.

These challenges translate into tangible operational and financial consequences: production delays, supply chain disruptions, escalating utility costs, and heightened scrutiny from regulators and stakeholders. In this context, water resilience is not just a sustainability imperative—it is a strategic necessity.

How Does it Work?

At Schneider Electric, we view water and wastewater management not just as a utility, but as a strategic system that can be optimized, digitized, and decarbonized. Our integrated solutions span the entire water cycle, helping organizations enhance operational efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and build long-term resilience.

We work across water resources, treatment, distribution, and recovery, delivering advisory services that combine energy management, digital intelligence, and sustainability expertise. Whether you are just starting your water journey or scaling mature programs, we tailor our support to your business, your basin, and your goals. Our services include:

  • Strategic Foundations for Water Stewardship: We help you define your water ambition—starting with regulatory compliance and alignment to global frameworks like the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN). Through materiality assessments, we uncover critical water dependencies and impacts across your value chain to inform enterprise-wide strategies.
  • Digital Enablement & Portfolio Modeling: Our digital assessments evaluate current water management capabilities and identify improvement opportunities. Using scenario modeling, we help you set achievable water targets across your portfolio. These insights are integrated into Resource Advisor, enabling real-time tracking, data-driven decisions, and transparent reporting.
  • Water Risk Assessment: We help organizations identify and prioritize water-related vulnerabilities across their operations. Using geospatial screening and our EcoAct Climate Risk (ECLR) Platform, we assess exposure to 28 climate hazards, quantify potential financial impacts, and recommend targeted adaptation measures, empowering clients to take proactive, risk-informed action
  • Site-Level Action and Prioritization: We identify high-priority sites where technical solutions can reduce freshwater consumption. We assess the financial and operational feasibility of these solutions, prioritize actions based on impact and ROI, and develop tailored roadmaps to drive site-level water stewardship.
  • Implementation, Verification, and Performance Management: We support the full lifecycle of water conservation projects, from investment-grade audits and implementation to ongoing performance management. Our services include water savings verification, KPI-driven monitoring, and continuous optimization using digital tools.

Schneider Electric is a trusted partner to enhance water efficiency and resilience, drive circularity and biodiversity, and unlock business value through these strategic water advisory services. Our global expertise, combined with local delivery and support, ensures that every solution is tailored to your region, your basin, and your business.

Who Benefits Most from Water and Wastewater Advisory Services?

Any organization that uses, treats, or depends on water is exposed to water-related risks—and stands to benefit from proactive water and wastewater advisory services. This includes manufacturers, food and beverage producers, energy providers, data centers, agribusinesses, and other sectors where water plays a critical operational role.

These industries face growing exposure to:

  • Physical risks such as droughts, floods, and long-term water scarcity,
  • Regulatory risks driven by tightening water quality and usage standards, and
  • Reputational risks shaped by stakeholder expectations around environmental responsibility and climate resilience.

As global water stress intensifies—with over two billion people currently affected and projections exceeding five billion by 2050—businesses must act decisively to safeguard their operations and supply chains.

Our services help organizations transition from reactive compliance to strategic resilience. By identifying vulnerabilities, modeling future scenarios, and implementing targeted solutions, we help clients reduce operational costs, extend asset life, and build long-term water security in the face of climate volatility.

In Conclusion

At Schneider Electric, we help organizations transform water risk into resilience—and wastewater into opportunity. Our integrated solutions combine global expertise with local support, backed by decades of innovation in sustainability and climate adaptation.

If your organization is ready to treat water not just as a utility, but as a strategic priority, we are ready to support you. Whether you are looking to assess vulnerabilities, model future scenarios, or implement targeted solutions, our team is here to guide your journey toward long-term water security.

Start the conversation with us today and take the first step toward building climate-resilient operations.