Circle of Blue is informing the world’s most important decisions about water, food, and energy in a changing climate.
“To respond to the world’s greatest, most urgent challenges, we need trusted information, clear context, and solutions-focused dialogue. Circle of Blue cuts through the complexities of global development. Through knowledge and informed action, we can make a better future.”
We face a profound moment in history that will define our water future.
Across the world, intensifying water scarcity is disrupting populations, economies, and the environment — impacting every aspect of life as we know it.
With societies and ecosystems experiencing climate change primarily through the lens of water, climate-driven shifts in the world’s hydrologic cycle have profound implications not just for health, food, and energy, but for the very planet itself.
As we move deeper into the 21st century, we are witnessing a new crisis threshold, as major cities from South Africa to Brazil face total water shutdowns. Collectively, we face a “disorganizational emergency,” marked by a lack of trust and inefficient coordination, that leaves us more vulnerable to water-related shocks than ever before — especially for the 4 billion people worldwide who already must cope with water shortfalls for at least one month of the year.
The good news?
There are better ways to sustainably manage the water needs of both people and the planet — and we already possess many of the solutions needed to change course and navigate the urgent challenges of this uncertain new era.
Circle of Blue is more than one of the world’s premier water “newsrooms” that provides policymakers, business leaders, and everyday citizens with an authoritative, independent, and world-renowned source for data-driven water reporting and classic investigative journalism.
We are also a new kind of media organization — anchored by partnerships and collaborations with communities, governments, media, foundations, and the private sector. Circle of Blue serves as a trusted convenor that works across sectors to connect diverse water stakeholders and create the synergies needed to accelerate global progress toward climate-resilient water security.
The founders and team at Circle of Blue have been part of some of the largest publishing events in history, changed policy, achieved breakthroughs in data management and engagement, edited major magazines, addressed Congress, orchestrated Olympic bids, and coached legions of talented young people.
For nearly 20 years, we have been on the front lines, revealing game-changing trends, producing major events and competitions, and hosting and co-hosting solutions-focused convenings, including:
* Producing and hosting World Water Day at the Vatican, opened by Pope Francis in partnership with the World Bank, United Nations, and Rockefeller Foundation.
* Creating the “Designing Water’s Future” competition in partnership with AIGA, Aspen Design Challenge, and COLLINS.
* Hosting visualization competitions and hackathons in partnership with Qlik and Deloitte.
* Developing and publishing the breakthrough “Global Choke Point” series with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Skoll Global Threats Fund, and Asian Development Bank.
* Facilitating events with the World Economic Forum in Azerbaijan, India, Mongolia, China, and Switzerland.
* Co-founding the Great Lakes News Collaborative, an innovative multi-channel reporting and distribution platform of five leading news and policy organizations reporting on water in the U.S. Great Lakes.
As thought leaders in the field, our visionary work across the U.S., China, Australia, Mexico, India and the Middle East has earned Circle of Blue the Rockefeller Centennial Innovation Award, and we are a long-time thought leadership contributor to the World Economic Forum’s Water Futures and other initiatives. Our research, events, and storytelling have helped shape climate agreements, inform urban policy, and drive civic action in the water arena, inspiring collaboration from Davos to Beijing, from Washington to the Vatican.
But we are just getting started.
Reach out to learn more and find out how you can join Circle of Blue and our widening circle of partners and collaborators. This is a moment of transformation when we commit to meet the growing demand for trusted information and powerful collaborations that can deliver change, at scale for fresh water and all that it touches.
Learn more about our history and timeline on Wikipedia.
Timeline
“No one is better positioned to deliver groundbreaking knowledge on the critical resource of global water than Circle of Blue.”
Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group
“Changing the face of journalism.”
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
“The combining of journalism, science, data, design and convening power is an innovative model that works.”
Hon. Jane Harmon, President, Wilson Center
“To respond to the world’s greatest, most urgent challenges, we need trusted information, clear context, and solutions-focused dialogue. Circle of Blue cuts through the complexities of global development. Through knowledge and informed action, we can make a better future.”
Henrik Skovby, Executive Chairman, Dalberg Group
Circle of Blue in the News
Circle of Blue, the independent digital news organization that informs critical decisions about the world’s escalating freshwater crises and their impacts on food, energy and health, announced today that it is a recipient of a three-year catalytic grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Heidelberg University and its National Center for Water Quality Research (NCWQR) announced a new partnership with Circle of Blue on June 21, 2022.
The partnership is designed to produce expanded educational opportunities, innovative research initiatives, and scientific communication at a time when compounding water challenges are threatening the ability to grow food, generate energy, and support cities and ecosystems.
On March 23, 2020, the Water Resilience Coalition, an industry-driven, CEO-led coalition of the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate, launched. Circle of Blue is a founding partner organization.
On January 22, 2020, leaders of major brands, designers of global movements, and developers of large-scale citizen science projects assembled for a special workshop in Davos, Switzerland, for Designing Water’s Future.
Together they rolled up sleeves to inform a new strategy, that to create a water-secure world in a changing climate will take unprecedented tenacity, creativity, collaboration, hope, nimble- ness… and “outrageous optimism.”
On January 23, 2020, whether it was a workshop on the pros and cons of deep-sea ocean mining to our own session, “Designing Water’s Future,” there was sense of impending action in Davos, Switzerland.
“Ways to Water,” J. Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue’s Managing Director, Moderates World Economic Forum Session on October 3, 2019.
The work session included discussion and debate about India’s extensive water challenges, particularly pressures of climate change, overuse of groundwater, equity, and wastewater and pollution — and how to develop customized, geo-specific policies for water delivery and management in India and across Asia.
Leaders on Purpose, in its 2017-2019 Global Multi-Year CEO Study, cited Circle of Blue’s contributions in shaping concepts and ideas and providing photography.
Impact, National Association for Environmental, Health and Safety, and Sustainability Management’s annual sustainability conference, serves the internal leaders who are setting the vision and integrating these goals into business operations. Carl Ganter led the Designing Water’s Future session at the Impact19 conference.
Water was among the top priorities at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit hosted June 4 in The Hague, The Netherlands where J. Carl Ganter moderated the session, “The Future Now: Water,” and emceed the Water Solutions Stage. The Government of The Netherlands and U.S. State Department hosted the conference of some 2,000 leaders, innovators, and investors.
Circle of Blue Operations Director Matthew Welch was a panelist for the “Pooling World-Class Expertise, Innovation and Creative Partnerships to Solve a Range of Water Challenges” panel, part of the Sustainable Brands 2019 Conference.
The World Economic Forum named Circle of Blue co-curator of its Strategic Intelligence Water map.
The Stockholm International Water Institute named Circle of Blue an official media partner for its 2019 World Water Week event.
The Asian Environmental Journalist Association has recognized Sibi Arasu by awarding him the Environmental Journalist of the Year, Merit Award. Sibi’s award-winning writing includes articles that are a part of Circle of Blue’s Choke Point: Tamil Nadu series, focusing on the unrelenting, illegal sand mining industry in Tamil Nadu; his other work examining how Chennai’s, India, IT corridor has been bullied by fierce flooding, a dangerous cyclone, and severe drought.
In 2017, Circle of Blue convened and facilitated Watershed, an international conference co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Vatican’s intermediary for scientific and religious inquiry, and the Club of Rome, a global policy think-tank. Watershed focused on the ethical, moral, economic, and scientific principles must be united to guide local and global responses to world’s urgent water challenges.
Senior Reporter Brett Walton received the Society of Environmental Journalist’s 2016 first place award for “outstanding explanatory reporting” for his insightful 2015 series on the hidden hazards of septic treatment systems.
