Fresh perspectives on water sustainability and risk are shared at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, examining how communities, industries, and policymakers can address growing challenges around water security.
At Davos 2026’s “Water in the Balance,” business, finance, and conservation leaders argued that water security is both a moral imperative and an economic constraint that demands “radical collaboration.” Gap CEO Richard Dickson framed water as apparel’s “essential ingredient” and a human necessity, noting 2.1 billion people lack clean water. Water.org’s Matt Damon and Gary White announced Get Blue, a consumer-and-corporate movement designed to make water “mainstream” through brand activations and funding that flows to proven solutions. White emphasized “awareness in service of impact,” while Damon grounded the stakes in “loss of human potential,” describing a Zambian teenager whose ambitions depended on nearby water access.
The panel stressed scalable mechanisms over charity. Water.org’s breakthrough is microfinance: households already paying high daily water costs can repay small loans, with 98% repayment rates; Water Equity extends this via investable capital stacks. Reckitt CEO Kris Licht underscored the shift: “the way to solve it is to make it a business.” Nature Conservancy CEO Jennifer Morris highlighted watershed “water funds” and sovereign “nature bonds,” showing how valuing ecosystems unlocks scale and returns. Indigenous leader Aulani Wilhelm reframed governance around “the equitable sharing of water,” urging partnerships that treat Indigenous communities as asset-bearing decision-makers.
Okay. Well, it's good to see everybody here. Thank you so much for joining us. You know, there's a lot of subject matter and important subject matter. So having you join us here means a lot. I am Richard Dixon. I'm the CEO of Gap Inc.. You may know our brands. Certainly. Gap is one of the most recognized brands in the world, but we have many. And in the context of that, water is an incredibly important subject in our industry. Gap, of course, is an apparel retailer. We are incredibly excited to be here in Davos because this is a place where leaders get together and they talk and they talk about things that matter in our industry. Water matters. Why the clothing you all wear? It's made with water. Water is an essential ingredient in the context of doing what we do. And we're serious about the efforts that we need to make to recognize that water not only is an ingredient for our business, but we're made up of water. And so when we look at the efforts that we make around water stewardship, what we also recognize is water cleanliness, water safety, recognizing that 2.1 billion people around the world don't actually have access to clean water. Now at Gap, our purpose is to bridge gaps to create a better world. We see one of the most important gaps in the world is that gap, that gap between people who have access to clean water and those who don't. And that is an incredibly important subject matter. Not only is water important for our operations, our supply chain, our employees, our communities, but it is essential to the human, if you will, life source. So I met Gary and Matt, at Climate Week a couple of years ago, and what I was struck by was their passion, their expertise, their commitment to solving the water challenge. It inspired me. It inspired our entire company as water. Such an important part of our strategic program. And we were encouraged to figure out how can we help them, how do we help them solve, if you will, with solutions and bring more awareness to the efforts that they're making? And so today is a moment. But it's not just a moment or an ad campaign. It's actually about inspiring a movement. It's about building a movement to create those solutions. So we're incredibly excited here to share with you. And now I'll turn it over to Matt to share more about it.
Thank you. Richard. The energy you see on this stage is real because we've got a new initiative to tell you about. We're all pretty energized by it. So Gary and I have been at this for a while now, a few decades. And, we've been in a constant search for new ideas, new innovations, new ways to connect more people more quickly with solutions to their own water challenges. Of course, the best ideas have come from the people facing the water crisis in their everyday lives. So the search for innovative solutions is how we've reached 85 million people to date with access to water and sanitation. Now, to put that in context, if we kept using traditional methods and drilling wells the way Gary started back in 1990, it would have taken us 600 years to make the same impact. So to give you a sense of the scale that we're dealing with, Water.org used to reach, well, it took us 22 years to reach our first million people, and now we reach a million people every six weeks. So we feel that momentum. We feel it building more and more families. More and more businesses and communities are using these solutions to address their own water challenges. But as Richard said, there are billions left to reach. So we got to keep innovating and doing more of what we know already works. So that's why with partners like gap, we came up with Get Blue. So just inspired. It's inspired by Red right. So just think about red. It's a movement inviting people to bring water home for the billions who need it. So Get Blue brings together companies, creators and consumers to increase awareness about the global water crisis and drive impact to elevate water into a cultural conversation. So we're launching it here at Davos this week. Hopefully you're going to be hearing a lot more about it, amidst some other noise. And. And hopefully you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the months and years ahead, starting right now with Gary.
Thanks, Matt. And thanks, Richard, for your partnership in this. It's been incredible. And Matt's right about how we all feel about Jet Blue. So let me say a few words about how it works and what we think it can do. JetBlue is about the role we each play in making water accessible to all. We want more people to understand that there is a water crisis, but also that the crisis can be solved and that they themselves can play a role in solving it. So at a high level, it's about awareness and impact awareness in service of impact. For our corporate partners, that means creating their own ways to engage their communities. Now think of walking into gap and buying a blue hoodie, or walking into Starbucks and picking up a blue drink. Amazon two has all sorts of creative ideas for this. For other partners that come on board, it might mean donating loyalty points or donating a checkout. And consumers when they engage, which we think they're really eager to do, are going to bring water home for millions of people because their actions will drive funding to go directly toward Water.org solutions. We're launching JetBlue with gap, Amazon, Starbucks, and Ecolab for the biggest brands with the biggest platforms. For us, this commitment by their leadership is a strong sign that water belongs in the mainstream now and on the main stage. When we started coming to Davos a dozen years ago, Matt and I, that was really a tough sell, but not anymore. I've been working on this issue for more than 30 years, and I've never been more hopeful than I am right now. And given what's going on in the world, it feels a little strange to say that out loud. But this space has never had more resources, more partners. And as Matt said, more momentum, more leaders are coming to see what we see. The water crisis is solvable, and in our lifetimes, we've seen the world rally to eradicate disease and tackle other global challenges. This is now the moment for water.
So we're throwing around a lot of big numbers. A because this is Davos and that's just what you do. And B, because that's actually just the scale of the challenge. And the stats can kind of overwhelm you. So in closing I just want to talk about the number one, one person, one life transformed. And for me that one person who I always keep in mind who reminds me why I got into this work, is a teenage girl that I met in rural Zambia on one of the on actually the first water collection I ever went on. So she was 14. I was I was waiting for her when she got home from school, and she put her backpack down and picked up a jerrycan and I picked up a jerrycan and we went for a walk. So it was just it was just the two of us and an interpreter and, you know, and I'm asking her all these questions. And she was shy at first, kind of wondering who this weird American guy was asking all these questions. But she she really opened up when I asked her about her future. I said, you know, you know, we're in very rural Zambia, right? Like like dirt floor huts. And and I said, you know, you're going to live here, you know, when you grow up. And she looked at me like I was crazy. And she goes, I'm not living here. She goes, I'm going to Lusaka. I'm going to be a nurse, you know? And I started laughing because she reminded me so much of Ben Affleck and me at that age, going, like, we're not staying here, we're going to we're going to the big city, we're going to New York, we're going to be actors. And it's like, kind of like every what every 14 year old should be doing, right? Dreaming about the life and the world of possibility in front of them. And I just had a great connection with this kid. And as I was driving away, I realized it just hit me that had someone not had the foresight to sink a bore well, a mile from this kid's house, she wouldn't be dreaming about becoming a nurse, being a frontline healthcare worker, contributing to the economic engine of her country, she she would be in a life and death struggle every day, looking for water for herself and her family. So to me, that's what this is about. It's not just the death, which is a massive issue. A million people are going to die this year from completely preventable things. You know, that's unconscionable in 2026. But that's where we are. But it's also the loss of human potential. It's dreams not realized. It's it's it's which is just an incalculable loss to to to our species and to these people's existence. So that is what water means for one person. So now imagine that multiplied by 2.1 billion, right? Imagine if we could bring water home for everyone, everywhere. And that's what JetBlue is going to help us do. So it's going to take the creative, entrepreneurial minds of companies like gap. It's going to take their consumers, especially the younger generation who really want their purchases, to do some good in the world. It's going to take our partners like Ecolab, like like Amazon, like Starbucks, and just today, formula E, you know, using their platforms and their leverage to keep this out front and center so that we make this a cultural conversation. And it's also going to take other partners. We're out here recruiting other corporate partners because we have on ramps for everyone. And we want you to join this movement, and we need you to join this movement. And you're not going to just be partnering with us at Water.org. You're going to be partnering with with people around the world, like that girl that I met in Zambia all those years ago, who inspired me to use my voice to bring water home. So thank you.
Oh my God.
You on the front line with me.
Good morning. Thank you for joining us. As we envision a prosperous and sustainable blue planet. You know, Matt talked about how in Davos we talk about numbers. Numbers don't lie right. 1 in 4 people still have no access to water. Fresh water clean water. That's 2 billion people. Yet when you take a look at the ocean, it has natural resources worth $24 trillion. And when you take a look at the fresh water ecosystems. It has an economic value of almost $80 trillion. So effectively we should not be talking about a water gap. Yet here we are talking about how to solve the issue. The issue with water is that it's complex. It's multifaceted. It's not just about scarcity, it's also about access. We talk about how sea levels are rising. It's about pollution. We have industrial water, untreated sewage, like we heard from Gary earlier. There are innovations, there are solutions. And of course, Matt and his team have demonstrated how that can be done. The problem is you can't work in silos. You need to work together. You need to have comprehensive, sustainable strategies. How is it done? Well, our speakers today are doing it the most effective way. They are the inspiration of how it can be done in the world so that we have a blue planet. On that note, I'd like to bring in Richard. I mean, Richard, the apparel industry has a bad reputation, right? You used enough water in a year as an industry to support 5 million people. A pair of jeans takes about 10,000l of water to make. But you do your business differently, right? I mean, you have incorporated what is stewardship into your core strategy is not an add on. It's not a by the way, talk to us about how you're doing it.
Well, first of all, I think recognizing the challenge that we all have in the context of what what it takes to do what we do, and we're not shy of it, but I am proud of the progress that we make to create those solutions. It is progress, not perfection. And we do need to acknowledge we have to make a lot more progress. Look, water and sort of nature in general is a partner. You know, as we've learned today in one another session, 50% of our GDP is dependent on the partnership between nature and product and business. And apparel is an incredibly important partner, if you will, or nature is an important part of our partnership. Water is the essential ingredient to do what we do. I mean, you call out the numbers, they're extraordinary. And so as Gap Inc., as I said, our purpose is to bridge gaps to create a better world. And so we've always taken a lot of pride in recognizing that we need to do good. We need to do more than sell clothes. We need to participate in part of the solution. And with that being said, we've worked on this for years in terms of being water stewards, if you will, in our industry with developing programs not only around consumer interest, but with collaborations and our capital. And that is how we sort of synchronize and think about water as part of our business strategy, not only because it's essential to what we do and if we're going to grow, we need more water. But it's also the right thing to do. And for for for all intents and purposes, our bodies are made up with water.
But Richard, it is end to end. Do you think about water from the start to the finish? I think that's the difference.
Well, we have to not only in our product development process, but in the people that work in our factories. We take a lot of pride in recognizing that women who are 80% of our workforce, and many of which in the factories that we do have in countries we have difficult access to water. We established programs like Women in Water and fund and collaborate with many people in our industry to actually support and develop ways that we can get access. We invest in technology with a partner with phyto, who actually uses AI technology to find leakage in systems that ultimately can save and preserve water. And last but not least, in today's partnership, we partner with people like Matt and Gary who have worked tirelessly around Water.org and developed water Equity, which is an investment fund that Gap Inc. has invested in twice now. Not only do we get a return from a business perspective, but the return is greater because the impact is incredible. As I said, 2.1 billion people, as Matt passionately portrayed that story. Imagine if and why not? And so recognizing that in a deep and meaningful way, get Blue is a great way to bring more awareness of the issue and more tangible ways that consumers can participate in the solution. And so we're incredibly excited to, from a consumer perspective and from a partner perspective to promote and get more collaboration, to create the coalitions, to make the solutions possible.
And Matt, it's it's amazing you've reached 85 million people. That's actually more than some global organizations trying to solve the water issue. It is about scale. Tell us how you've done it. Because it's micro-financing. When you think about microfinancing, you don't really think about scale yet. You've scaled it in such a huge way, reaching 85 million.
Yeah, and we're not satisfied with that. We've got a lot more work to do. And so those world organizations are going to have to play keep up. So, yes, microfinance was, was was really the brainchild of my partner Gary. And it was just a brilliant insight he had that in these communities people were paying for water, they had no savings, but they were paying day to day, sometimes up to 25% of their income for water. And and he thought, well, if I could connect them to an existing system, by fronting a loan, they can pay that loan back. And that was a reach for the microfinance institutions at the time, because it's not a straight income generating loan, it's an income enhancing and loan because you're really buying their time back. But it was a hypothesis that Gary had that just turned out to be, it's worked out better than we ever could have hoped. Because the truth is, you know, it's it's what we did was we nudged the market towards these women. I mean, 90% of our borrowers are women because this disproportionately affects women and girls. So we nudged the market towards them and got out of their way, and they solved their own problems. And so these loans pay back at 98%. And if you think about that, these are the most economically vulnerable people on planet Earth. And they're not asking for a handout, they're just asking for an opportunity to solve their own problems. And, and that's that's really the the genius behind this methodology and why it's worked so well. And why we created an asset manager. Because we were in India about 12 years ago. And all of our partners, you know, as we informally polled them, they identified access to affordable capital as their biggest bottleneck. And so we were like, how do we get more money into this? This system works. And that led us to create an asset manager. And so it gives corporates and, you know, an on ramp in another way if they want to invest from their treasury. You know, which, you know, two of my favorite people sitting next to me do with, with with theirs, and and, and and also gives away in this blended model to because the donations we use to de-risk the and use as technical assistance to build out these markets. Which if you told me when I got into this, I was drilling wells, if you told me I was going to learn about capital stacks and, you know, de-risking loan portfolios, I. But that's where the work led us. And that's where, you know, maximum the maximizing of impact led us, this really works. There's there are ways to, to actually invest. And then you can donate the returns back to Water.org. So we can keep going out and expanding this work. But it's a it really was a finance problem. At the end of the day.
This works. And what also works is how you think about water differently. Alana. I mean, when it comes to the indigenous people, they view water as sacred. They view water as a living thing. It's not just a resource. Talk to us about how that changes, how you view water, the appreciation for it, and how you can do things differently.
Well, first of all, Villena. Aloha Makoko. Greetings to everyone and to the ancestors that we bring with us here today who have enabled us to be here today. As a Native Hawaiian, I'm very fortunate that I was able to be raised in the homelands and also the culture of my mother. We learned very young that we descend from the ocean, that all living things on life descend from the ocean. Turns out science has figured that out as well. And we also learned this principle really young. And I really appreciate our little time in the hall where you said I lived in Hawaii, and water is really important there. The core principle is oleoyl-coa, which is water is life, right? Why is the root word of so much? It's water. And life for us is the word for prosperity. It's the word for wealth. Connorhoy is the word for our laws, and it literally means the equitable sharing of water. That's the basis of our governance system. It's these are the manifestations of our worldview about how water is incredibly sacred. And I share that because it's from my personal experience. But it's not uncommon right across the indigenous world. It is. There is an understanding of the sacredness of water that all life descends from water and it requires water. You know, and I think in, you know, it's not just drinking water, it's the whole hydrosphere. So I really appreciate the wecf for bringing in blue Davos this year to really realize that it's the atmospheric water, right? The the salty water that's in the ocean and our drinking water and the impacts that each of those, any assaults on any of those pieces actually affect the rest. Right. And affect all these people who otherwise would have different lives, as you explained, who have no opportunity, you know, and I think on islands, right, we can see the whole hydrologic system in play every day. We see it come up from the ocean, form into a cloud, rain down, come down the stream and get back into the ocean. Super simple. But the extraordinary thing is, I've met people from the heart of the Amazon, deep into the Congo, who, when they talk about their genealogy, they come from the ocean. They know this connection. And it's that intimacy with water that I think we all need to return to, right? In my opinion, and in my experience, you know, it is really important to partner with indigenous peoples because the evidence is clear. We are represent 5% of the human population, but we are occupy a quarter of the landmass on Earth, and 50% of the most thriving ecosystems left on the planet. That's pretty clear evidence. The other cool thing is, in that 5% is 98% of the human diversity in language and culture, and that mirrors the biological diversity. That's not an accident. That is that true interaction and understanding and holding of the intimacy of what water means for us. And that's what we have to return to as people, so we can set good policy so we can make good investments. And quite frankly, for for us, and in my experience, water isn't, a strategic asset. It's not a commodity. Although I realize that it's necessary for all production and all industry. But what it is, is the most essential element of any strategy to live and to thrive.
And there's so many stakeholders. Jennifer, talk to us about the initiatives adopted by the TNC and how effective they have been.
Great. Thanks so much. If I could, I'd love to start with pulling some threads from the conversation so far. Matt, I was really struck by your story. I started my my career in conservation in rural Namibia and spent two years with women collecting water, something that we take for granted every day. Just turn on our tap. We have it in bottles and the life of the vast majority of people on this planet, indigenous people and local communities, is really about how to just satisfy their basic needs of water being the most important one. The Nature Conservancy is very focused on two, two big threads when it comes to water. One, of course, is freshwater. We know that so much activity is happening in cities where water is often wasted, or in many cases, just not valued. You know, companies like The Gap and others are building manufacturing facilities and spending money on that, but they're not investing in one of the core resources they need to be profitable. And that is water. So one of the things that we developed about 20 years ago was a whole initiative called Water funds. So how do we get companies? How do we get water authorities around the world to actually pay for protecting watersheds upstream that then provide more water into the cities for manufacturing and for household use? And we started this in Quito, Ecuador, and we started with philanthropy. As often these things that are kind of crazy ideas start where philanthropists will put in money and take a risk. And we started there. Then we got companies involved and then the municipal water authority said in Quito, Ecuador said, you know what? We're realizing that for every dollar we invest in helping farmers upstream to plant more trees, we're getting $2.15 in benefits of water coming into our watershed. That's real money, and that's where you start to see scale. So we've taken that first example in Ecuador, and now it's in over 45 countries and is really having an impact not only on watersheds and cities where we're seeing like Cape Town is having such a hard time with ensuring that there's enough water in these places to fulfill agriculture, manufacturing and household use. This has a real impact. And so, Richard, I love what you said about really seeing water as integral to the business. I was saying in the in the green room, like water is not woke, water is essential for life. And I love what you just said about that. Pulling a thread to the oceans very quickly. The blue Davos is amazing. We're not talking enough about oceans here. Oceans is incredibly important. We've got some great, wonderful success. But the challenge has always been funding ocean conservation. We know philanthropy is insufficient. How about the bond markets. Let's go to the bond markets. Can we do some creative things? We started an initiative ten years ago in the Seychelles called Nature Bonds. We're actually restructuring the sovereign debt of countries who are crippled by debt. The borrowing costs of developing countries is sometimes four times what it is in developing countries or in developed countries. We must help these countries, and the best way to do that is through money from the private sector. That's where we scale. So we developed this initiative called Nature Bonds, where we're helping countries who want to do 30% protection of their oceans do that in a way that's sustainable, that they can also reduce their debt. So restructuring their finance. We've been able to restructure over $1 billion of money that's yielded for conservation, and over $400 million is going directly in to conservation projects, which will help protect 30% of the oceans. This is when things start to scale. We have $10 billion in new projects happening around the world. We've done this in six countries now, and the most important thing from a conservation perspective is now we're seeing results in the Seychelles. They finished their marine spatial plan. They're now seeing blue whales come back to the Seychelles for the first time in generations. So that is what success and scale looks like. So thank you all for this opportunity to share.
I want to talk about funding, but before that I just want to bring Chris into the conversation. I mean, for record, I mean, it's amazing you've been cutting your water footprint and you're looking at what, cutting 50% by 2040? If I'm not wrong, how are you looking at water as a strategic asset while driving growth on the business?
Well, for us, it's obvious that water is essential to life because we make consumer health and hygiene products. Hygiene is the foundation of good health, and actually water is the foundation of hygiene. So these things hang together very tightly. You can't use our products unless you have access to water. And our products help people keep themselves safe and hygienic and keep families safe. So, water has always been important to us. I think what's very exciting, and you've heard it from this great group here working on this issue, what's exciting to us is that this is a practical problem that we can solve. And so we are just doing our part, and we want to encourage all corporates and organizations to to really come to this challenge and use the very practical ways that we can solve the problem. So, you know, Matt, you talked about Gary's insights on this topic. Gary has educated me a lot. The thing that got me most excited about what Gary said is not only can we solve it, but actually the way to solve it is to make it a business. So rather than philanthropy, which we do a lot of and I'm proud of that, but, it's not enough. And so really the scaling and the acceleration comes when we turn this into a business. You know, Matt, you've said to me before, no one takes out a loan for something they don't want. And so once you get people have a stake in things, right. It's it's their project. It's their well the microfinance loan is theirs. The benefits are for their family. Then you start to see the acceleration. And so for big companies like us, we can enable this not just through philanthropy and support. And certainly something great like JetBlue is something we'd love to, to support. But, in addition to that, we can deploy a small portion of our balance sheet, earn a, earn a decent return, actually, but make a huge difference in terms of the the raise of capital to, to really fund these gaps. So for us, this is absolutely critical both for the business and and for society.
It can't be solved. It needs funding. It has funding. But you have to be smart about the funding. Right. Because currently there's a gap of 85 million per year. I want to bring you into the conversation, Matt. I mean, as we look towards the UN water conference in 2026, which, by the way, is only the third since 1977, so people are really excited about it. What is the most powerful financial tool out there that should be mobilized? That's being, I guess, being thought of. I mean, how do we mobilize more capital, more funding into water?
Well, that's the that's what we wrestle with all the time. That's the question we always ask ourselves. And that's why JetBlue is such a big step for us, because it's actually Richard came to us, he he knew about our work. He metabolized it incredibly quickly, actually, and came to us with this wonderful energy and impatience. And he just said, what more can we be doing? How can we? And and so he really catalyzed this. He convened a group in San Francisco of a number of companies. And out of that was built these these first four and four really diverse range but incredible companies. I mean, it was gap, it was Amazon, it was Starbucks and Ecolab. And we call them our Four Horsemen. Right. But but we're trying to raise an army. And that's what we're here to do to recruit more partners. Because just first, you know, the top line is he said the awareness raising is massive for us because that's the first hurdle we have to clear in the developed world, because it's such a hard issue to relate to for people, you know, if you're raising money for cancer research or Aids research, everybody's been touched by that somehow friends, family members, somehow they have a deep and emotional connection. But this is unless you get the opportunity to go out and see this and see the impact of this to the people, it's happening, which most people don't, it's very hard to keep top of mind and understand the magnitude of the crisis. And that's why JetBlue is so important for us, because it's going to take this wide variety of incredible corporations who are pushing out this messaging in all kinds of different ways and have activations that are all. And we're still developing this. So for any corporation who wants to come on board with this, is it. Your involvement will be tailor made to you. You know, Ecolab, you know, so we have B2B solutions that we're trying to figure out. So we have an on ramp for everybody. But but you you'll come on and help design what works for your company but also will drive impact. And so that's something we're looking at this year that we're really excited about. We're going to go live in June and with the full launch. And and that is what we're you know, in the short term, along with, you know, because all of these proceeds, they come right through Water.org and go into that work. And so we know we're reaching a million people every six weeks. We're not satisfied with that. We want to accelerate.
What's the goal?
Well, I mean, okay, long term goal is is our mission statement, which is we envision a day where everybody, everywhere has access to safe water in our lifetime. And we believe and that is an ambitious goal, but it is one we think we can hit because we we've proven that there are solutions in place. It's just about the effort and the energy that's brought to bear against it in the short term. You know, we're talking about 200 million people by 2030, but hopefully we're on this curve and we're going to be the rocketship that, that, that that accelerates and solves this as fast as it can be solved.
I just want to pick up on funding because that is essential. Jennifer, talk to us. You talked about blue bonds. How should companies start thinking about funding this blue planet?
So the fundamental thing that we I think as a community, as environmental community, have maybe not done a great job at is is really demonstrating the economic value to companies so we can work with a lot of wonderful sustainability experts, and they do great work, and there are many here in this room. But at the end of the day, to scale, it has to make economic sense for the supply chain or for the industry that those companies are in. You have to be able to convince the CFOs and the CEOs that this makes sense, that water, that nature is an essential part of business profitability. So that is something that I think we're we're coming to in terms of, you know, again, how do we do this in the ocean space for with the sovereign debt market, it was again, it started with a crazy idea, and it started with leadership from a bank that said, this is insane. We're going to actually restructure the debt of a country and then put money into ocean conservation. And it took a few individuals that were willing to step up and say, yeah, let's give it a shot. And now one one gentleman who was involved in the first structuring did this, said this was the hardest, most complicated transaction I've ever done and I can't wait to do another one. And now it's sort of started a flywheel where lots and lots of banks are coming in and saying, we want to be part of this. We know it's complex, but it gives us the deep impact we need for our businesses and we're still making money. And that for me, is is where we start to see scale.
Stakeholders, indigenous people. We talk about how we can tap the experiences and the knowledge. The question is how best to engage. It is not just about consultation. They have to be embedded into decision making and all the processes talk to us what would work best.
So, you know, let me talk about what a successful partnership doesn't look like. It doesn't look like charity. It doesn't look like a gift, right? It looks like respect. It looks like understanding that indigenous people bring assets to the table. The most effective way to create clean water is nature. We have lots of tech that can support that, and indigenous people have figured these things out and have been doing it for for thousands of years. So bringing indigenous people as partners, creating partnership agreements that say, this is what we're bringing, we might be bringing policy support, we might be bringing finance, we might be bringing technical assistance or, quite frankly, access to technology that makes living and operating and building on indigenous ways and ways of being more effective, more, more cost effective and more able, right. The bringing together of these proven, tried and true solutions with what contemporary assets are can be the goldmine for being able to actually scale and and accelerate. And, you know, we've been talking a lot about freshwater here. And I appreciate Jen bringing in the ocean. You know, another example that I'd just like to bring is we started with things like marine protected areas. And that feels like a draw. People go, oh, that's purely philanthropy. Well, half my life was involved in a very special place called Papahanaumokuakea. It's about three and a half times the size of California in the northern part of Hawaii. We didn't know that 25 years later, what was going to result, aside from incredible protection of clean water, the cleanest water quality standards in the world for the ocean, by the way, turned out to be over $200 million, which maybe isn't in the scale of the kinds of corporate numbers that are spoken here at the Whef. But $200 million in direct investment in science and education and in technology, very early kind of drones and ROVs and OS were tested in papahanaumokuakea that have now become commonplace every day. And they could test them in these places because they could push the push the limits on these on tech or on science. And we've become a sentinel site. Way before climate change was a thing we were measuring. What does it look like in the ocean? What's happening absent of anthropogenic changes. Right. So you need these laboratories that do that. That's the benefit. But the real bonus is now this area if you catch fish right outside the area, we've seen a 52% increase in catch in yellowfin tuna alone on an average 9% increase across all species. We all know in every headline we read on fisheries, that's the exact opposite trend of where everything else is going in the world. These things work and Papahanaumokuakea was not an advent of a president or a couple of presidents or conservationists. The seed of it was elders in our community, fishermen who saw the change, connected with conservation partners and advocates, got the attention of a couple of presidents and created this extraordinary place. Right. That's what true partnership looks like.
It's also about innovation. And Richard, I was very curious to read that you have an innovation center in India which helps you. What? Save millions of gallons of water? Yeah. One. Why India and what's working out?
Well, first of all, it's it's yet another effort. And I think what we're recognizing as I listen to this esteemed panel and I love the thread, no pun intended, in the context of how it all blends together. But even with JetBlue, you know, these are these are mechanisms, not solutions, but and they're collective. It's not there's no silver bullet to any of this. And so it takes collaboration.
Radical collaboration.
Radical Jan came up with that.
To to actually make that impact. And hopefully this is inspiring more people to to find and pick the spots where they can indeed collaborate. One of the efforts, as well as many that we've talked about here today in getting supports and water stewardship, is we partnered with Arvind, our partner in India and manufacturing facilities, to create a water innovation center, literally an entire building designed with scientists to actually study how we can recycle, reuse and reduce, more water in the context of what we do and what our partners do with us, which, again, is not only a business strategy, but for a business that needs to grow with strategies that are designed to grow. You look at what we do and the ingredients that it takes to do what we do, and we need more water, but we also need to do what's right. And so developing a water innovation center is core to our strategic imperatives. To grow, we need more water, but to do what's right we need to do right. By nature, nature is a partner to our business. It's a partner to all of our businesses as well as the center of humanity. And so it's not a choice. We've got to collaborate. We've got to participate. And I think what you're hearing today is there's a lot of mechanisms, if you will, to actually partner and support. Sometimes these can be overwhelming sometimes. And here at Davos it can be almost overintellectualized. And so one of the key parts of our dialogue with JetBlue is we've got to get this to be more part of the common consciousness, more of the cultural conversation, more in ways that everybody who does have access to safe water, who takes it for granted that you could brush your teeth and look at us. Here you go. I'll have some water. It's very simple, but if we make people more aware through the JetBlue campaign that you could participate in the solutions by what you buy and meaning what you support, and the fact that the next generation is even more interested in that. I think we truly are creating a movement that will matter and a solution in our lifetime, which is incredibly inspiring.
We talk about collaboration. How has it worked for you and what have you achieved that you wouldn't otherwise have achieved if you had not collaborated? Chris?
No, I think, water.org. Water equity is a perfect example. And JetBlue, I think, is the latest iteration of collaboration. I think, as Richard said, each of us run our businesses in the best way possible, and we innovate and we focus on new technology and sustainability in our business, but we don't see the full picture. And so it's when we connect and scale. And I think one of the things that's been striking about the water space over the years is there's a lot of good effort, there's a lot of people working on it, but sometimes it gets a little fragmented and fragmentation of effort is not a good idea in the face of this massive challenge. So the more we do things together, you know, we do our part, but we do it together. You know, we fund the same investment platforms. We we engage in the same campaigns. I think the more we join it up and it's less about what my company is doing, it's much more about what can we do together as an industry, as a coalition across industries. I think that's that's what's going to make the difference. And I think it's going to happen.
We have two minutes left. I want to go down the row. Call to action. What is the one action we all can take to ensure maximum impact? Alan.
We cannot reach our global goals that we're setting for ourselves, or the kind of impact that we need on the globe without investing and partnering with indigenous peoples.
Get out of your comfort zone and work with people organizations that sometimes you think are your competitors. Because the time is now that the the issues are so urgent and we have to really stress the effort around radical collaboration, it's key.
Next time you travel to a country where lots of people don't have water, take a trip out in the community and see it for yourself.
Participate and collaborate in this effort around JetBlue. It is a simple, it is a simple request with incredibly impactful opportunity.
Yeah, I would say get involved. And that's exactly what I wanted to say. But but we have on ramps for everyone. So consumers we're going to we're finding a way to get you involved with JetBlue. That's going to come online later in the year to other corporate partners. Please avail yourself of these partnerships and and your peers in these corporations. Oftentimes they are are they're better recruiters than we are, because they really evangelize what we do, and they do it beautifully, and they're incredible partners. But we need more partnerships. So get involved.
On that note, thank you for helping us build a blue planet. I hope you've been inspired. Let's do this. Thank you.
Thank you.