Water is a vital sustainability consideration in business sectors and communities around the world. It can also be one of the most complicated to manage. The good news is that water stewardship – working with others to identify and tackle the complex challenges we face around sustainable water use – is becoming more recognised by industry leaders and global decision makers.
At the landmark United Nations 2023 Water Conference, an energised and committed water stewardship community shared years of collective experience and resources to help companies understand how to better address their water use and impacts. This momentum for water stewardship continues to grow.
Global climate change, growing economies, population growth and changing lifestyles are putting increasing pressure on the Earth’s limited freshwater resources.
Water stewardship considers the ‘bigger picture’ of water use – how consumption in one place can have a big impact on communities and ecosystems elsewhere. It also considers climate-related water challenges, such as droughts or floods.
For businesses, embracing water stewardship means thinking beyond their own site boundaries and working with others to understand and address the wider, longer-term impacts of their water use.
Water stewardship is for the greater good, but it also makes commercial sense. It helps protect business continuity, ensuring that supply chains and operations will be resilient to water-related challenges as they arise.
Through the AWS Global Training Programme, we offer a range of courses designed to build your expertise and network in water stewardship.
Our Introduction to Water Stewardship Training provides a foundational understanding of water stewardship and the community and collective efforts driving it forward.
AWS Standard System Training explores the changing landscape of water risks and opportunities, the concept of water stewardship and how it can help businesses and their supply chains to become more resilient to climate and water-related challenges.
Both training programmes are also available as tailored trainings exclusive to your organisation.
The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) exists to tackle the urgent global challenges driven by water insecurity. Our mission is to ignite and nurture global and local leadership in credible water stewardship that recognises and secures freshwater’s social, cultural, environmental and economic value.
Find out how we are accelerating our impact in the AWS Strategy 2022-2030.
AWS and its members support the adoption and promotion of the AWS Standard. Our collaborative network works hand-in-hand towards the same goals: using water stewardship to protect the shared water resources we all rely on.
We support action on two levels:
Our strength lies in the diversity of experience that AWS Members bring with them. AWS Members tell us that the collaborative, multistakeholder nature of our organisation gives them confidence that they are doing the right thing. It allows them to challenge each other and the AWS System, and to respond to water challenges in a transparent, equitable and sustainable way. AWS Members also play a pivotal role in growing and strengthening the water stewardship community.
The International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard) is a globally applicable framework for major water users to understand, measure and advance their water stewardship performance. The AWS Standard is:
AWS Member organisations have unlimited access to the AWS Tools Hub. The site is home to a variety of water stewardship resources to help you along your water stewardship journey, including:
AWS convenes Communities of Practice (CoPs) across a variety of topics to deepen engagement with water stewardship. They include biodiversity, cross-sector, agricultural supply chains; pharmaceuticals, chemicals & personal care; and textiles & apparel.
We invite all relevant stakeholders to join our CoPs to collaborate with one another, help set the agenda for water stewardship, and join a group of purpose-driven individuals united in a mission to protect water resources. Our goal is to foster broad, inclusive dialogue across the diverse landscape of water stewardship.
Those interested in learning more about water stewardship across these areas are welcome to join an upcoming meeting.
The AWS Collective Action Accelerator is a collaborative, location-based approach to water stewardship. It was developed to give businesses working in water-stressed regions an opportunity to work together to find solutions to shared challenges in a cost-effective, scalable and replicable way.
AWS is currently running and scoping AWS Collective Action Accelerators across the globe.
AWS Standard certification is confirmation of having met best practice for responsible water stewardship. It enables sites to make credible claims about their water stewardship performance and benefits may include increased investor confidence, improved brand perception and strengthened customer relationships.
A company can implement the AWS Standard across its single, group or multi-site operations.
AWS Standard certification is confirmation of having met best practice for responsible water stewardship. It enables sites to make credible claims about their water stewardship performance and benefits may include increased investor confidence, improved brand perception and strengthened customer relationships.
A company can implement the AWS Standard across its single, group or multi-site operations.
