Water stress is playing out across the globe, from the desperately low water levels on the drought-stricken Colorado River in the U.S. to the shrinking Rhine River in Germany, and threatening industries from agriculture to barge traffic.

To elevate water risk as a financial risk, Ceres, an environment-focused shareholder advocacy organization, and a group of institutional investors on Tuesday launched the Valuing Water Finance Initiative to encourage the biggest corporate water users and polluters to act on their water stewardship.

“There is no business that survives without water. There’s also no humanity that survives without water. And right now, every industry across the globe is experiencing firsthand the impacts of the growing water crisis, which is of course being compounded by the growing climate crisis,” said Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of Ceres.