The Water-Culture Institute promotes sustainable, equitable, and efficient management of water resources through explicit and deliberate application of ethics to the process of water decision-making. We believe that water policies and practices forged through systematic consideration of the moral implications are more likely to serve the long-term interests of both people and Nature. We promote values-oriented decision-making in the water sector through (a) developing and publicizing global standards and innovative best practices, and (b) building local capacity for values-based water planning in selected basins. The main goal of the Water-Culture Institute is to inspire creative solutions to the interlinked challenges of water scarcity and ecosystem degradation. Our organization has four initiatives that support our main goal: 1) Water Ethics; 2) Valuing Agriculture; 3) Rio Grande Governance; and 4) Participatory Water Management. The development and implementation of a Water Ethics Charter is the cornerstone of our work; the Charter will provide a key tool for better decision-making through crystallizing ethical concepts that make intuitive sense to a broader range of stakeholders, across cultural boundaries and gender, age and class distinctions.