A Roadmap for Water Utility Trust, Transparency and Resilience

Water utilities are at the heart of community well-being-delivering safe drinking water, managing wastewater, protecting watersheds and sustaining the environments we depend on. But as water management challenges grow more complex, utilities must navigate a new reality: sustainability and resilience are no longer optional-they are core to long-term success.

That's why, through The Water Research Foundation project 5206, our team at Jacobs worked hand-in-hand with utilities and water sector leaders to develop an environmental, social, and governance framework for water utilities. Based on global best practices and input from national and European project partners, this framework helps utilities of all sizes identify their most pressing risks and opportunities-and take targeted action to address them.

Why stewardship and resilience go hand-in-hand

Effective sustainability practices extend beyond daily operations-they shape a utility's ability to earn community trust, secure funding, retain skilled employees and deliver safe, reliable water services.

Our research revealed common barriers for water utilities including limited resources, competing priorities and, in some areas, political sensitivity. The roadmap was designed to overcome these challenges by being flexible in language and adaptable in scope. Whether an organization calls it stewardship, sustainability, resilience, or social responsibility, the underlying approach remains the same: manage environmental, social and governance priorities in a way that's transparent, measurable and aligned with customer and community needs.

We gathered insights from surveys, best practice benchmarking and an interactive workshop with utilities across sizes and service types. From this collaboration, we identified five sector-wide focus areas:

1. Water quality and emerging contaminants
2. Customer trust and relations
3. Risk and crisis management
4. Governance structure and policies
5. Transparency around performance and management practices

For each area, the roadmap includes sample action plans with goals, objectives and public reporting guidance. It also offers tailored recommendations for six utility subtypes, recognizing that priorities differ between, for example, a large metropolitan wastewater agency and a small rural drinking water provider.

The result is an interactive web-based tool that generates customized action plans based on a utility's characteristics. It references global standards such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Reporting Initiative, and features examples from leading utilities including DC Water, Melbourne Water and United Utilities.

As water sector challenges intensify, from resource scarcity to climate-driven events, the need for thoughtful planning and sustainability strategies has never been greater. This new roadmap offers a clear starting point-adaptable to every utility's unique context-to help navigate the uncertainties ahead.

Jacobs OneWater Director Joseph Danyluk and I will share more at WEFTEC, Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2025, where we will present the findings of WRF project 5206 and the roadmap we've developed. View our WEFTEC 2025 agenda here.