Dive Brief: - An initiative launched Thursday aims to develop standardized guidance for how companies should assess and manage water risks across their organizations. - The initiative is led by sustainability standards organization SCS Global Services, World Resources Institute, World Wildlife Fund and the CEO Water Mandate, according to an April 30 press release. - The goal is to create a shared language and methodology for how companies measure and manage water resource risks and impacts across their company. While water-related frameworks exist, they don’t share a language, which limits comparability. Dive Insight: The groups are developing the “Corporate Guidance for Assessing Water Scopes 1-3 in Value Chains” to help manage growing water stress on the planet. Over half the global population — around 4 billion people — live under “highly water-stressed conditions” for at least a month each year, the World Resources Institute found in 2023. WRI estimates that $70 trillion will be exposed to “high water stress” by 2050, or approximately one-third of the global gross domestic product. The goal is that final guidance would connect to existing disclosures like those from CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) and the Alliance for Water Stewardship. The group was formed, in part, because of the recognition of the gap in standardized language to measure corporate water impacts, SCS Global Services’ Executive Director of Standards and Assurances Victoria Norman said in an interview this week. “There is a gap in the landscape of reporting frameworks,” Norman told ESG Dive. “Everyone is reporting on different things using the same terms [that mean] different things or using different terms to mean the same thing, making comparisons impossible and making tracking progress and performance impossible as well. And we're at a time in our climate crisis where we need results.” The group plans to develop