Water Stewardship in Agriculture
WATER IN THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR
Water is a crucial ingredient for growing fruits, vegetables and other crops, with around 70% of global freshwater used for agriculture. With changes in climate, sustainably managing water will be essential to ensuring continued crop production.
Many strategies focus on site-level water management, but addressing all of the sector’s water risks — from water scarcity impacting crop yields to a lack of safe water for workers — requires us to think beyond the fenceline. It requires an understanding of how water impacts are felt across complex agricultural supply chains.
The Alliance for Water Stewardship provides a systematic and auditable approach to guide your water stewardship journey, along with the tools, expertise and helping hands needed to implement the AWS Standard across value chains.
WHY WATER STEWARDSHIP?
Global climate change, growing economies and changing lifestyles are putting increasing pressure on the earth’s limited freshwater resources. Water stewardship is a holistic approach for using and protecting the water we all depend on.
Our approach to water stewardship not only ensures that the most important water risks are managed but also provides a mechanism to inspire conversations and action among those entities sharing water resources. The result: stronger stakeholder relationships and an increase in a community’s collective resilience.
WHO WE ARE
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.
Learn more about us by reading the AWS Strategy 2022-2030: Accelerating Impact.
WHAT WE DO
AWS is two mutually supportive things:
1. A sustainability standard system
- 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.
- Built on a five-step process that guides water users to consider the most critical water impacts (see diagram).
- Driven by five outcomes: good water governance; sustainable water balance; good water quality status; important water-related areas (IWRAs) and water, sanitation and hygiene for all (WASH).
- Developed to implement on any site or within any catchment, sector or geography.
- Underpinned by third-party certification to enable sites to make credible claims on their water stewardship performance.
- Fully compliant with ISEAL, the global alliance for credible standard systems.
2. A multi-stakeholder membership-based alliance
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:
- Global: We raise awareness and driver water user engagement worldwide.
- Local: We build capacity and momentum by connecting AWS-implementing sites with stakeholders and activities.
WATER STEWARDSHIP IN ACTION
Read our case studies highlighting learnings on implementing water stewardship in the agriculture sector:
Agricultural company uses AWS Certification to lead regional water stewardship: Agrícola Chapi
The World’s First AWS Group Certification: Ci Técnicas Baltime de Colombia S.A.
German food retailer, EDEKA in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) worked with one of their suppliers – Dole Food Company, one of the largest suppliers of fruit and vegetables in the world – to implement the AWS Standard at 11 privately owned banana farms in Colombia. These farms are all managed by CI Técnicas Baltime de Colombia S.A and are large-scale farms, employing hundreds of people. Together they implemented the AWS Standard to achieve the world’s first AWS Group Certification, becoming water stewardship leaders. The experiences shared in this case study can help inform other sites seeking AWS Group Certification.
WHAT DO OUR MEMBERS SAY?
“Our relationship with AWS has provided us with a platform and network to be able to find actors who see the same value in water that we see; groups that are committed to make an impact on water resources in our region.”
– Manuel Oleachea, Sun Fruits Exports
“Being part of AWS has been a great experience, which has led us to better understand our water management, not just within our own operations, but as part of the wider catchment. I believe that nothing is going to really change if we don’t work together and AWS gives us the opportunity to work with allies to better accomplish our water stewardship goals.”
– Úrsula Baertl Espinoza, Agrícola Chapi
“Water is essential for our business at EDEKA. When looking at our value chains for fresh produce, we found many agricultural standards do not adequately address water. Through our membership with AWS we have been able to build water stewardship in key sourcing locations, such as Latin America and southern Europe. In addition, as a member of the agriculture working group we are able to connect with and learn from our peers, and guide the progress of water stewardship in agriculture.”
– EDEKA ZENTRALE Stiftung & Co. KG
HOW TO START YOUR WATER STEWARDSHIP JOURNEY
JOIN THE AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAINS WORKING GROUP
We invite committed agricultural brands, food & beverage manufacturers, NGOs and regional experts to apply to join AWS’s Agricultural Value Chains Working Group. Participants will:
- Collaborate with leading brands, NGOs and regional experts to help set the agenda for water stewardship in the agriculture and food & beverage sectors.
- Get a deeper understanding of water-related impacts in agriculture, beyond water usage and pollution.
- Learn from other industries making strides with the AWS Standard, like Textiles and Apparel and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
- Find community within a network of purpose-driven individuals united in a mission to protect water resources.
AWS Working Groups are limited to AWS Members and partners. However, new participants who are interested in learning more about AWS and the work we are doing are welcome to join up to three meetings.
JOIN AN AWS COLLECTIVE ACTION ACCELERATOR
The AWS Collective Action Accelerator is a collaborative, location-based approach to water stewardship. It has been developed to offer a format of engaging with the AWS Standard that is cost-efficient, scalable and replicable. The programme provides a pre-competitive opportunity for companies to work towards collaborative solutions to shared water challenges in important sourcing hubs facing high water risk.
BECOME AN ALLIANCE FOR WATER STEWARDSHIP MEMBER
AWS Members play a pivotal role in growing and strengthening the stewardship community. Membership is open to any organisation motivated to tackle water-related challenges collectively, regardless of size or geography.
GET ACCESS TO WATER STEWARDSHIP NEWS AND RESOURCES
Visit the AWS Tools Hub to access a range of AWS tools, including the AWS E-Standard and E-Guidance, online learning modules, webinars and more, with unlimited access for AWS Members.