In a world where more than 1bn people live without safe drinking water and more than 2bn lack basic sanitation, business is often seen as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

From the chemical disaster that polluted drinking supplies to the Chinese city of Harbin in 2005 to the water-guzzling flower farms blamed for depleting Kenya’s Lake Naivasha and the dams that threaten to flood a swathe of Chile’s Patagonian wilderness, the intertwining of commerce and rapid development is frequently associated with a high human and environmental cost.