“The world’s capacity to respond to water security risks is in doubt.”
Fresh water scarcity is disrupting populations, economies, the environment – every aspect of life as we know it.
The effects are profound in health, food and energy and
to the very planet itself.
We are witnessing a new crisis threshold, as major cities face total water shutdowns.
There are better ways to manage the water needs of people and planet and for over a decade, Circle of Blue has informed their discovery. Its trusted reporting has enhanced climate agreements, urban policy and citizen activity, and it has inspired collaboration from Davos to Beijing, from Washington to the Vatican.
Circle of Blue unites classic journalism, data literacy and transformative connectivity. Its visionary work across the Great Lakes, U.S., China, Australia, Mexico, India and the Middle East earned the Rockefeller Centennial Innovation Award, one of the nation’s top honors.
Circle of Blue meets the demand for information and collaboration in the challenge of the century: water.
Timeline
“No one is better positioned to deliver groundbreaking knowledge on the critical resource of global water than Circle of Blue.”
Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group
“Changing the face of journalism.”
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
“The combining of journalism, science, data, design and convening power is an innovative model that works.”
Hon. Jane Harmon, President, Wilson Center
“To respond to the world’s greatest, most urgent challenges, we need trusted information, clear context, and solutions-focused dialogue. Circle of Blue cuts through the complexities of global development. Through knowledge and informed action, we can make a better future.”
Henrik Skovby, Executive Chairman, Dalberg Group
Circle of Blue in the News
On March 23, 2020, the Water Resilience Coalition, an industry-driven, CEO-led coalition of the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate, launched. Circle of Blue is a founding partner organization.
On January 22, 2020, leaders of major brands, designers of global movements, and developers of large-scale citizen science projects assembled for a special workshop in Davos, Switzerland, for Designing Water’s Future.
Together they rolled up sleeves to inform a new strategy, that to create a water-secure world in a changing climate will take unprecedented tenacity, creativity, collaboration, hope, nimble- ness… and “outrageous optimism.”
On January 23, 2020, whether it was a workshop on the pros and cons of deep-sea ocean mining to our own session, “Designing Water’s Future,” there was sense of impending action in Davos, Switzerland.
“Ways to Water,” J. Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue’s Managing Director, Moderates WEF Session on October 3, 2019.
The work session included discussion and debate about India’s extensive water challenges, particularly pressures of climate change, overuse of groundwater, equity, and wastewater and pollution — and how to develop customized, geo-specific policies for water delivery and management in India and across Asia.
Leaders on Purpose, in its 2017-2019 Global Multi-Year CEO Study, cited Circle of Blue’s contributions in shaping concepts and ideas and providing photography.
Impact, National Association for Environmental, Health and Safety, and Sustainability Management’s annual sustainability conference, serves the internal leaders who are setting the vision and integrating these goals into business operations. Carl Ganter led the Designing Water’s Future session at the Impact19 conference.
Water was among the top priorities at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit hosted June 4 in The Hague, The Netherlands where J. Carl Ganter moderated the session, “The Future Now: Water,” and emceed the Water Solutions Stage. The Government of The Netherlands and U.S. State Department hosted the conference of some 2,000 leaders, innovators, and investors.
Circle of Blue Operations Director Matthew Welch was a panelist for the “Pooling World-Class Expertise, Innovation and Creative Partnerships to Solve a Range of Water Challenges” panel, part of the Sustainable Brands 2019 Conference.
The World Economic Forum named Circle of Blue co-curator of its Strategic Intelligence Water map.
The Stockholm International Water Institute named Circle of Blue an official media partner for its 2019 World Water Week event.
The Asian Environmental Journalist Association has recognized Sibi Arasu by awarding him the Environmental Journalist of the Year, Merit Award. Sibi’s award-winning writing includes articles that are a part of Circle of Blue’s Choke Point: Tamil Nadu series, focusing on the unrelenting, illegal sand mining industry in Tamil Nadu; his other work examining how Chennai’s, India, IT corridor has been bullied by fierce flooding, a dangerous cyclone, and severe drought.
In 2017, Circle of Blue convened and facilitated Watershed, an international conference co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Vatican’s intermediary for scientific and religious inquiry, and the Club of Rome, a global policy think-tank. Watershed focused on the ethical, moral, economic, and scientific principles must be united to guide local and global responses to world’s urgent water challenges.
Senior Reporter Brett Walton received the Society of Environmental Journalist’s 2016 first place award for “outstanding explanatory reporting” for his insightful 2015 series on the hidden hazards of septic treatment systems.