Business is part of the solution and has a crucial role in driving the step change needed to meet Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation. This guide has been developed to support evidence gathering and strengthen the business case for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), which is currently lacking.

In response to the challenge of quantifying the business benefits, WaterAid, Diageo, GAP Inc., and Unilever have worked with PwC and ODI to develop a practical, step-by-step guide. The guide will help companies understand the business value of their WASH investments and calculate their financial return on investment (ROI).

It is aimed at companies who are likely to have an established WASH programme and want to evidence the financial benefits of their WASH interventions. This may be to:
1.        Strengthen the internal case for future investment.
2.       Work with suppliers to scale up WASH programmes.
3.       Generate more business case data, which can be shared in a consistent format and used to catalyse action across the business community.

What can you do?
This guide provides an opportunity for progressive companies to take a lead, showcasing the incentives for business investment on WASH while catalysing action. WaterAid, Diageo, GAP Inc., and Unilever call on companies to use the guide and, most importantly, share the data they generate, and their learnings, with WaterAid.