"Business as usual will lead to a 40 percent gap in supply demand of water by 2030," said Emilio Tenuta, vice president of corporate sustainability at Ecolab. However, despite water conservation projects, since 2011, corporate water use has declined only by 10 percent.

According to Tenuta, if the world is to address the pressing issue of water quality scarcity, "we're going to have to create partnerships that accelerate change and reinvent the way we work."