In 2017, 535 companies (70%) have board level oversight of water issues, and are reaping the rewards, including market differentiation, shareholder confidence and business resilience.

And greater oversight is driving action and a small vanguard of companies (7%), including Diageo, Colgate, Palmolive and Nestle, are now establishing internal values on water to account for social and environmental costs and benefits.

By providing board members with the information and tools to truly value water, companies are better able to plan for the transition to a water-secure world.

The transition to a water secure future is well underway. A growing number of companies are beginning to move ahead of the pack, and invest time, money and effort into addressing water security.

In 2017, companies committed US$23.4 billion across more than 1,000 projects to tackle water risks across 91 countries worldwide, including desalination, reclaiming waste-water and improving irrigation to avoid droughts.

This is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go. According to the G20, meeting the targets for water set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires US$6.4 trillion by nations, states, cities and companies by 2030.

CDP now holds the world’s largest corporate water dataset, with more companies reporting than ever before. In 2017, 2,025 companies worth approximately US$20 trillion in market capitalization.

This year, 74 reporting companies achieved an A score from CDP, including Burberry, Ford Motors, Mitsubishi Electric, Kellogg's and Woolworths. This is up from just 25 in 2016.