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, technologies, and ready-to-go solutions can provide us with safe water coming from every tap, farms that grow food without polluting waterways, cities strengthened by cleaner lakes and rivers, and enough water for people and nature. “Smart 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 Smart Water Management in Cities

We support local efforts in cities from coast-to-coast to implement Smart 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 Smart Water management

— Video and other resources about the benefits of Smart 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.

Boosting Smart Water Management on the Farm

We support efforts to work with farmers and large-scale buyers of agricultural products to encourage sustainable water use, reduce pollution, and increase farm revenue. With a current focus in the Midwest, where most commodity crops are grown, we make grants to projects that boost demand for sustainably-grown products and advance practicesLooking for more information? You can dive deeper with these resources:

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

— Video and other resources about the benefits of Smart 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 benefit water.

Building 21st-Century Water Policy

We support implementation of policies that stimulate investment in Smart 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 Smart Water management

— Video and other resources about the benefits of Smart 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

Using Technology to Better Protect Water

We fund the use and development of technology, including remote sensing, low-cost water quality monitors, open source applications, and web-based platforms, to increase the protection of water. We invest in technologies that allow the public to document water pollution and advocate for clean-up.

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 Smart 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 Smart Water management

— Video and other resources about the benefits of Smart 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 Smart Water solutions creates impressive results for people and nature, reducing the strains brought on by climate change, population growth, failing infrastructure, and pollution.

Grantee Spotlight

Environmental Working Group

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment by driving consumer choice and civic action through research, advocacy, and education. For more than 25 years, EWG has worked to ensure that consumer products, drinking water, and waterways are clean and safe. By building partnerships to advocate for policies and programs to curb polluted runoff from agricultural operations, EWG works to protect drinking water and prevent toxic algal outbreaks.

Recent highlights of Environmental Working Group’s work include:

  • EWG’s Tap Water Database, the first-ever comprehensive nationwide assessment of contaminants found in drinking water and their health impacts.
  • An interactive map that tracks the increasing number of toxic algal outbreaks in every state, based on a decade of media coverage.
  • EWG’s Conservation Database, the first-ever detailed review of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s conservation programs, encouraging farmers to adopt practices that improve water resources and the environment.