GRI 303- Water and effluents

An organization can affect both the quality as well as the availability of water. If the reporting organization has identified significant water-related impacts in the value chain, which includes entities with which the organization has a direct or indirect business relationship and which either: (a) supply products or services that contribute to the organization’s own products or services, or (b) receive products or services from the organization, it is required to report information about these impacts. For describing where the impacts occur (i.e., topic Boundary),

The description of how the organization interacts with water can include information on specific catchments where water is withdrawn, consumed, and discharged, and information on what the water is used for in direct operations and elsewhere in the value chain (e.g., for cooling, storage, incorporating in products, growing crops).

The reporting organization should describe how it participates in discussions with stakeholders, the frequency of this engagement, and its role in these discussions. Outcomes of working with stakeholders can include, for example, collective target-setting for water use, increased investment in infrastructure, policy advocacy, and capacity building and awareness raising.

When reporting on its engagement with suppliers, the organization should describe:

• how the organization engages with its suppliers to help them improve their water management practices;

• the number of suppliers engaged;

• the outcomes of this engagement;

• the amount of procurement that the proportion of engaged suppliers represents;

• why information is not requested from suppliers with significant water-related impacts;

• future plans and goals for working with suppliers to reduce water-related impacts.

In the context of this Standard, suppliers with significant water-related impacts may include suppliers of water-intensive commodities or services, suppliers located in areas with water stress, and/or suppliers with significant impacts on the local water environment and the related local communities.

Tools and methodologies for identifying impacts can include life cycle assessments, environmental impact assessments, water footprint assessments, scenario analysis, and stakeholder engagement. If information is estimated or modeled, rather than sourced from direct measurements, the organization can explain its estimation or modeling methods.

The volume of water withdrawal from areas with water stress can indicate an organization’s impacts in sensitive locations.

Water stress refers to the ability, or lack thereof, to meet the human and ecological demand for water. Water stress can refer to the availability, quality, or accessibility of water.

Water stress in an area may be assessed using either of the following indicators and their thresholds:

The ratio of total annual water withdrawal to total available annual renewable water supply (i.e., baseline water stress) is high (40-80%) or extremely high (>80%)3;

The ratio of water consumption-to-availability (i.e., water depletion) is moderate (dry-year depletion, where for at least 10% of the time, the monthly depletion ratio is >75%), high (seasonal depletion, where for one month of the year on average, the depletion ratio is >75%), or very high (ongoing depletion, where the depletion ratio on average is >75%)4.

The organization may use these indicators even though they account only for quantity and not the quality or accessibility of water as per the inclusive approach to the definition of water stress.

The organization can complement the results from these tools with their own assessments, to provide more granular local-level data. Water stress in an area may be measured at catchment level at a minimum.

Other water constitutes any water that has a concentration of total dissolved solids higher than 1,000 mg/L. Other water is therefore all water that does not fall into the freshwater category.

Quantifying the volume of water discharge can help an organization understand its negative impacts on the receiving waterbody.

The relationship between water discharge and negative impacts is not linear. An increase in the total volume of water discharge does not necessarily correspond to greater negative impacts, since these impacts depend on the quality of the water discharge and the sensitivity of the receiving waterbody. An organization with a high volume of water discharge, but also a high level of treatment and strict quality standards, can have positive impacts on the receiving waterbody.

The organization is required to provide a breakdown of the water discharged to all areas and to all areas with water stress by the categories freshwater and other water. Other water constitutes any water that has a concentration of total dissolved solids higher than 1,000 mg/L. Other water is therefore all water that does not fall into the freshwater category.

The organization is, at a minimum, required to report a figure for other water discharged. The organization can additionally report any further breakdowns for other water discharge based on its water management and reporting practices, as long as it explains the approach used to define water quality using Disclosure 303-4-e. The organization can report additional information on how water quality has been determined, including consideration of the potential value of water to its users, as well as any absolute physical and/or chemical criteria used.

Discharge limits for substances of concern can be based on regulation and/or other factors determined by an organization. In countries where no regulations for discharge limits are available, the organization can develop its own discharge limits.

‘Discharge consent’ is the permission granted to an organization, allowing it to discharge a set amount of a substance. The organization can report any unauthorized discharges that exceed these limits using Disclosure 303-4-d. The organization can also describe any plans to reduce unauthorized discharges in the future.

Reporting water discharge by level of treatment can provide insight into the effort an organization is making to improve the quality of its water discharge. When reporting how the treatment levels were determined, the organization is expected to include the reasons why a certain level of treatment was set.

The level of treatment can be reported for any water or effluents at the point of discharge, whether treated by the organization onsite or sent to a third party for treatment.

Water treatment involves physical, chemical or biological processes that improve water quality by removing solids, pollutants, and organic matter from water and effluents. Minimum requirements for treatment might be specified in national, state, or local legislation; however, the organization is expected to consider its overall water discharge impacts and the needs of other water users in setting treatment levels.