Why Water Belongs at the Top of Your BRSR Report
Water-dependent sectors contribute roughly half of India’s economic value added and employ nearly 70% of the country’s workforce, according to the World Bank. Textiles alone contribute 4% to GDP, and agriculture, the largest water consumer, underpins food security for 1.4 billion people. Yet NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index warns that water scarcity could reduce India’s GDP by 6% by 2050. Six hundred million Indians already face high to extreme water stress. For any listed company, water is not an ESG sidebar. It is a balance-sheet item that regulators, investors, and rating agencies are watching closely.
TL;DR: SEBI’s BRSR framework requires listed companies to disclose detailed water withdrawal, consumption, and discharge data unit by unit. BRSR Core now demands third-party assurance on water metrics for top listed entities, with coverage expanding each year. Water-dependent sectors drive nearly half of India’s GDP. Even if the regulation does not apply to your company yet, building a verified water baseline now saves you the scramble later, cuts costs, strengthens your brand, and prepares you for when the net widens.
What BRSR Actually Asks You to Report on Water
SEBI’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting framework, introduced in 2021, is built around nine principles. Principle 6 covers environment-specific disclosures, and within that, water gets its own dedicated set of indicators. The BRSR format requires listed entities to report, unit by unit:
- Total water withdrawal (in kilolitres), broken down by source: municipal, groundwater, surface water, rainwater harvested, and others.
- Total water consumption, calculated as withdrawal minus discharge.
- Total water discharge, by destination: municipal sewer, water bodies, third-party treatment, irrigation, and reused internally.
- Water withdrawal, consumption, and discharge in areas of water stress, flagged by location.
BRSR Core, introduced in FY 2022-23, takes this further. The top 150 listed entities by market capitalisation must now get third-party assurance on nine specific ESG value-chain KPIs, including water-related metrics. From FY 2025-26, this extends to the top 250 companies, on a voluntary basis for now. The direction is clear: more companies, more rigour, more verification.
The Expanding Net: Why Even Unlisted Companies Should Pay Attention
BRSR currently applies to the top 1,000 listed entities by market cap. BRSR Core’s assurance requirement started with the top 150 and is expanding. SEBI’s December 2024 update also introduced voluntary ESG disclosures for the value chain, pushing companies to account for water usage not just in their own operations but across suppliers and customers.
If you supply to a listed company that falls under BRSR Core, their auditors will ask for your water data. If your parent group is listed, your facility-level numbers feed directly into their board report. And if SEBI’s trajectory continues, mid-cap companies currently outside the net will likely be brought in within the next two to three financial years.
The practical advice from my decade of working with companies on water: start measuring now, not when the notice arrives. Building a water baseline takes 6 to 12 months of metering, auditing, and data structuring. Scrambling to produce numbers a month before the filing deadline produces unreliable data, and unreliable data under assurance is a red flag for investors.
Four Reasons to Get Water-Compliant Before It’s Mandatory
1. Financial: Reduce Costs, Unlock Capital
Companies that audit and optimise their water balance typically cut freshwater consumption by 30 to 50%. For a mid-sized factory in the NCR belt spending ₹3 to 5 lakh per month on tanker water, that is a direct saving of ₹10 to 30 lakh annually. Beyond savings, ESG-aligned companies attract green finance at better terms. RBI’s framework for green deposits and the growing ESG fund universe (₹18,000+ crore AUM in India) actively screen for water stewardship as a key metric.
2. Environmental: Close Your Water Balance
Every litre withdrawn that is not consumed, discharged, or recharged is a leakage from the local water cycle. Industrial RO reject discharged untreated, borewells going deeper each year without recharge, and rainwater running off paved surfaces into storm drains, all represent measurable environmental deficit. The 4R framework, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recharge, gives you a structured way to close that balance: reduce demand through efficient fixtures and processes, reuse treated water for non-potable applications, recycle wastewater back into production, and recharge rainwater to replenish aquifers.
3. Branding: Turn Compliance Into a Competitive Edge
A BRSR report with verified, well-structured water metrics signals governance maturity to investors, customers, and talent. It differentiates you from competitors who treat ESG as a tick-box exercise. Companies that publish transparent water data report higher trust scores in ESG ratings, which directly influence institutional investment decisions.
4. The Bigger Picture: Water Is a Shared Resource
I have seen colonies in Gurugram where borewells went dry, factories in Bhiwadi where production stopped because municipal supply ran out for three days, and corporate campuses in Bengaluru that spent crores trucking water during drought years. Water is not just a regulatory checkbox. It is a shared, finite resource. Conserving and recharging it is not charity. It is enlightened self-interest. The karma is real: the water you save or recharge today is the water your facility, your children’s city, and your country will depend on tomorrow.
How to Prepare: A Practical Starting Point
Over the last decade, I have worked with RWAs, factories, hotels, institutions, and corporate campuses on their water challenges. Here is what I would recommend as a starting framework:
- Conduct a water audit. Measure every source of water coming in and every outlet going out. You cannot report what you do not measure. This is non-negotiable.
- Establish your baseline. Document annual withdrawal, consumption, and discharge by source and unit. This becomes your BRSR-ready dataset.
- Identify your water-stress exposure. If your facility is in a NITI Aayog-designated water-stressed district (most of NCR, Rajasthan, and parts of Karnataka fall here), this must be flagged in your BRSR disclosure.
- Implement the 4R framework. Reduce demand first (cheapest, fastest ROI), then reuse treated water, recycle where feasible, and recharge rainwater to close the loop. Use the Water Balance Optimiser to simulate your site’s potential savings.
- Put it under an annual maintenance contract. BRSR water metrics need to be verified year on year. A subject-matter expert maintaining your systems ensures your data stays credible and your infrastructure performs as designed.
- Prepare for assurance. Engage an ESG assurance provider early. They will want to see metering logs, audit trails, and year-on-year comparisons. Starting early avoids the last-minute compliance scramble.
The Bottom Line
BRSR water compliance is not about filling a form. It is about understanding and managing one of the most material risks your business faces. Whether or not the regulation currently has your company’s name on it, the data infrastructure, the water-saving measures, and the governance discipline it demands will benefit your balance sheet, your brand, and your community.
Start with a water audit. The rest follows.
Get your water baseline assessed: +91 9871472211 | ecolive.in
Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies need to file BRSR?
Currently, the top 1,000 listed entities by market capitalisation must file BRSR. BRSR Core (with third-party assurance on select KPIs) applies to the top 150 by market cap, expanding to the top 250 from FY 2025-26 on a voluntary basis.
What specific water data does BRSR require?
BRSR Principle 6 requires unit-wise disclosure of total water withdrawal, consumption, and discharge (in kilolitres), broken down by source and destination. It also requires separate reporting for facilities located in water-stress zones.
What happens if our water data is unreliable?
Under BRSR Core, third-party assurance providers will verify your water metrics. Unreliable or unaudited data risks being qualified in the assurance report, which signals governance weakness to investors and can lower ESG ratings.
Can unlisted companies benefit from BRSR-style water reporting?
Yes. Unlisted companies that supply to listed entities are increasingly being asked for water data by their customers’ ESG teams. Proactive water measurement and reporting makes you a preferred vendor and prepares you for future regulatory expansion.
How long does it take to become BRSR water-ready?
Typically 6 to 12 months. It involves installing metering infrastructure, conducting a baseline water audit, structuring the data for BRSR format, and engaging an assurance provider. Starting early, even before the mandate applies to you, gives you a credible dataset rather than a rushed estimate.
