Water

When we use powerful 21st-century approaches worthy of water’s essential role in our lives and communities, we’ll have clean and plentiful water today and tomorrow.

New ideas and ready-to-go solutions can provide us with safe water coming from every tap, cities strengthened by cleaner lakes and rivers, and enough water for people and nature. “One Water” management, a new integrated approach that values all water, can accelerate and deliver these results by embracing each step needed to protect water for people and nature.

How We Do It

More than ever, all water is valuable and solutions are at hand to protect it. Our strategies include supporting:

Implementing One Water Management in Cities

We support local efforts in cities from coast-to-coast to implement One Water approaches, like green infrastructureLooking for more information? You can dive deeper with these resources:

— Blueprint for One Water, a report describing how to advance One Water management

— Video and other resources about the benefits of One Water management

— The Value of Green Infrastructure, A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental, and Social Benefits, a report on green infrastructure's multiple benefits

Want to go further? These organizations offer a wide range of information on water resources:

— EPA: Green Infrastructure

— American Rivers Integrated Water Management
1, that can reduce water pollution, add parks and other amenities, reduce flooding, and augment water supply. We fund leaders who are bringing this new thinking and bold practice to the urgent task of ensuring safe, sufficient, and secure water, creating more resilient communities, healthier waters, and stronger economies.

Building 21st-Century Water Policy

We support implementation of policies that stimulate investment in One Water approaches or facilitate their implementation. We fund efforts locally and nationally to reduce barriers to new policies that ensure clean, reliable water is available for all.Looking for more information? You can dive deeper with these resources:

— Blueprint for One Water, a report describing how to advance One Water management

— Video and other resources about the benefits of One Water management

— The Value of Green Infrastructure, A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental, and Social Benefits, a report on green infrastructure's multiple benefits

Want to go further? These organizations offer a wide range of information on water resources:

— EPA: Green Infrastructure

— American Rivers Integrated Water Management
1

Increasing Peer-to-Peer Sharing

We support information sharing efforts in and between urban watersheds that are already scaling up new water management practices or thinking about doing so. Connecting stakeholders so they can share information is among the most effective means of scaling One Water practices from city to city across our nation.

Looking for more information? You can dive deeper with these resources:

— Blueprint for One Water, a report describing how to advance One Water management

— Video and other resources about the benefits of One Water management

— The Value of Green Infrastructure, A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental, and Social Benefits, a report on green infrastructure's multiple benefits

Want to go further? These organizations offer a wide range of information on water resources:

— EPA: Green Infrastructure

— American Rivers Integrated Water Management

Implementing One Water solutions creates impressive results for people and nature, reducing the strains brought on by climate change, population growth, failing infrastructure, and pollution.

Video: Pisces Partners on a One Water Future

Grantee Spotlight

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice

The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families harmed by pollution and vulnerable to climate change in the Gulf Coast Region. For nearly 30 years, the DSCEJ has worked to cultivate community leadership, to develop a strong environmental workforce, and to advance groundbreaking, community-centered research.

A cornerstone of all DSCEJ’s activities is the Communiversity Model, developed by DSCEJ’s founder Dr. Beverly Wright. The model supports effective collaboration among communities and university researchers to ensure productive, community-centered research and policy. Relying on this model, DSCEJ launched the Gulf Water Justice Project in 2019 to tackle community-exposure to hazardous industrial releases that occur during major flood events and storms.

With support from the Pisces Foundation, DSCEJ is working with frontline organizations and researchers in the Gulf Coast to develop community-led water policy solutions, as well as frontline-led climate and energy policies through the Louisiana Future Energy Project.

Photo Credit: Michael Spooneybarger