2017 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grants Announced

TORONTO, March 22, 2017 /CNW/ - Released in conjunction with World Water Day, RBC today announced the recipients of the 2017 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grants. RBC will donate more than $2 million for water protection programs delivered by 122 organizations across five countries, including Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Malaysia.

"By 2030, global demand for water is expected to grow by 50 per cent* and we need to think more about how we use, care for and protect this precious resource," stated Valerie Chort, vice president, corporate citizenship, RBC. "We are proud to support the efforts our Blue Water Leadership and Community Action Grant recipients are making today to help preserve fresh water for future generations."

For a full list of the 2017 Blue Water Leadership and Community Action Grant recipients, click here.

RBC recently released its 10th Canadian Water Attitudes Study, an in-depth examination of how Canadians think, feel, and act in regard to our fresh water. For the full study, click here.

The RBC Blue Water Project is a historic, wide-ranging, 10-year global commitment to help protect the world's most precious natural resource: fresh water. Since 2007, RBC has pledged more than C$49 million to 770 charitable organizations worldwide that protect watersheds and promote access to clean drinking water, with an additional $8.8 million pledged to universities for water programs. The RBC Blue Water Project's ten year pledge of $50 million will be completed by the end of 2017. For further information, visit www.rbc.com/bluewater.

RBC is committed to helping address relevant environmental issues that could pose a risk to our ability to fulfil our purpose of helping clients thrive and communities prosper. We are still reflecting on and assessing the collective impact of the Blue Water Projects to help guide our future commitment to water. Details will be shared later in 2017.

About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is Canada's largest bank, and one of the largest banks in the world, based on market capitalization. We are one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies, and provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor services and capital markets products and services on a global basis. We have over 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 16 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 35 other countries. For more information, please visit http://www.rbc.com/.‎

RBC helps communities prosper, supporting a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. For more information please see: http://www.rbc.com/community-sustainability/.

* UNHABITAT (2016), World Cities Report 2016: Urbanization and development: (http://wcr.unhabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2016/05/WCR-%20Full-Report-2016.pdf)

SOURCE RBC