ZDHC Announces Partnership with Corporate Water Leaders to Advance Holistic Water Stewardship

ZDHC is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Corporate Water Leaders (an initiative of Global Water Intelligence), marking an important step towards a more holistic approach to global water stewardship.

For more than a decade, ZDHC has worked to eliminate hazardous chemicals from the global textile, leather, footwear and fashion industry, setting new benchmarks for environmental responsibility. At the heart of this mission is the ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL), supported by a suite of industry-validated tools that help facilities around the world implement safer chemical management practices. This facility-level focus has helped brands and suppliers achieve measurable progress in reducing pollution and protecting local water systems.

The collaboration with Corporate Water Leaders adds a new dimension to this impact. While ZDHC continues to drive hazardous chemical elimination and safe chemical input management, this partnership enables both organisations to integrate facility-level action into a broader water stewardship vision. This includes working with communities, water basins, consumers and policymakers, ensuring that chemical management is part of a wider commitment to sustainable water use and protection.

“At ZDHC, we see this partnership as the natural next step. Our programmes provide the technical foundation for safer chemistry, and Corporate Water Leaders complement this by bringing in the stewardship perspective – connecting facilities to the bigger picture of community engagement, basin resilience, and policy action,” said Frank Michel (CEO). “Together, we can elevate water protection from individual factories to the ecosystems and societies that depend on it.”

This partnership represents an exciting milestone in the journey towards cleaner water, safer communities and a more sustainable industry. By joining forces, ZDHC and Corporate Water Leaders will drive collective action, amplify impact and ensure that water stewardship becomes an integrated priority for the entire value chain.