Target 6.3: Reduce pollution, dumping, and hazardous chemical release
By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Water quality is the target where corporate conduct and corporate lobbying weigh most heavily. FAO finds agriculture is now the biggest source of water pollution in many countries, with nitrate the most common groundwater contaminant. Industrial discharges are poorly treated where measured: only 27 percent of industrial wastewater was safely treated in the 22 countries that reported, home to about 8 percent of the world's people. Organized business opposition to water rules is documented on every front. The Forever Lobbying Project traced hundreds of industry players across some 15 sectors fighting the EU's universal PFAS restriction. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed briefs that helped narrow Clean Water Act jurisdiction in Sackett v. EPA. The Farm Bureau, Fertilizer Institute, poultry, pork and corn groups litigated the Chesapeake Bay nutrient limits for five years. Suppose chemical, mining, meat, fertilizer and manufacturing companies stopped discharging hazardous substances. Suppose they also imposed nutrient standards on contract growers and suppliers, and lobbied for rather than against PFAS, wetland and nutrient rules. The hazardous-chemicals and dumping strands would then be largely delivered. Investor pressure on Tyson Foods, and Ceres' finding that corporate action on water quality remains insufficient, show the lever is live. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and Ceres organized 45 investors managing 1.2 trillion dollars to demand water stewardship policies from Cargill, JBS, Perdue and Smithfield, citing roughly 146 million pounds of toxic discharges to U.S. waterways over five years. What remains outside corporate reach is large. In 2022, 42 percent of the world's household wastewater, about 113 billion cubic meters, was not safely treated, mostly for want of municipal sewers and plants. Much farm runoff comes from smallholders and unlisted farms that supply-chain standards reach only partly. Owners can therefore remove the lobbying obstacle and supply a necessary input. Governments must still build and fund treatment and enforce rules on diffuse sources.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Pollutants from agriculture a serious threat to world's water, FAO, 2018-06-20
- Progress on Wastewater Treatment – 2024 Update, UN-Water / WHO / UN-Habitat, 2024-08-25
- The Forever Lobbying Project, Forever Pollution Project (Le Monde and partners), 2025-01-14
- Sackett v. EPA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, 2023-05-25
- American Farm Bureau et al v. EPA, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 2016 (accessed 2026-08)
- Investors Refile Water Pollution Resolution with Tyson Foods, Investor Advocates for Social Justice, 2018
- 2025 Valuing Water Finance Initiative Benchmark, Ceres, 2025
- ACC Comments on Update to PFAS Drinking Water Standard, American Chemistry Council, 2025-05-14
- Trump EPA guts landmark PFAS tap water protections, leaving millions at risk of harm, Environmental Working Group, 2026-05-18
- Leading Investors Press Meat Producers to Tackle Water Pollution Risks, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2016-11-21
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Co-organized with Ceres letters from 45 institutional investors managing over 1 trillion dollars asking Cargill, JBS, Perdue and Smithfield to adopt water stewardship policies covering discharges, animal waste and fertilizer runoff.
Co-organized the 2016 investor letters to four major meat producers on water pollution and benchmarks food company water management through its Feeding Ourselves Thirsty work.
Filed a 2026 shareholder proposal asking Tyson Foods to report on steps taken to address harms from waste lagoons in its own facilities and pork supply chain.
Tyson Foods Inc: Disclosure of Waste Lagoon Harm Mitigation Practices, As You Sow, 2025-08
Led a 2017 shareholder proposal asking Tyson Foods to adopt a water stewardship policy to reduce contamination risks.
4 campaigns on record
Issue a report disclosing steps taken to address environmental and human health harms from waste lagoons at owned facilities and in the pork supply chain.
Result: 2.5 percent overall; 11.0 percent of independent shareholders
Tyson Foods Inc: Disclosure of Waste Lagoon Harm Mitigation Practices, As You Sow, 2025-08
Recognize water as a financial risk and meet six corporate expectations covering water-quantity management, water-quality protection, ecosystem protection, sanitation access, board oversight, and responsible water-related public policy engagement, by 2030.
With Mercy Investment Services, other institutional investor signatories
Result: not a proxy vote; an ongoing multi-year engagement and annual benchmarking effort
Chipotle and Domino's Pizza are cited by Mercy Investment Services as companies that had already made commitments under the initiative as of 2023; Ceres publishes an annual benchmark tracking company progress.
Adopt a water stewardship policy to reduce the risk of water contamination from operations and supply chain.
With Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment
Result: not stated in source
Assess water pollution impacts across operations and supply chains, adopt water stewardship policies covering noncompliance, animal waste management and fertilizer runoff, and set goals beyond regulatory compliance.
Result: not stated in source
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.