Water is a shared resource — a global necessity, but on a management level, a local system.

Pedro Sancha, the senior vice president of Nalco Water, an EcoLab company, discussed the challenges and opportunities of water stewardship in the era of climate change. "Companies need to look outside and collaborate with other users in the watershed. It needs to be context-based," he said. 

The circular economy's focus on keeping materials and chemicals at play extends to one of the basic elements of human life: water. But localized water systems present certain challenges to maximize water's "quantity, quality and value," as EcoLab's vice president of sustainability, Emilio Tenuta, said.