The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) and the China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS), the publisher of China national water stewardship standard, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the 6th China Quality Conference in Nanjing on 16 September 2025.
The MOU, signed by Adrian Sym, CEO of AWS, and Fangping Luo, Head of CNIS, aims to jointly advance an effective framework for water stewardship standardisation. As part of this agreement, AWS and CNIS will:
- Organise an annual academic conference to disseminate the principles of water stewardship and share experiences and insights related to water stewardship standards.
- Draw on the strengths and resources of both parties to offer consultation and support on water stewardship standardisation collaboration – including industry associations, research organisations, enterprises and other relevant stakeholders.
- Enhance joint capacity development by developing training programmes on water stewardship standardisation to support the adoption and implementation of related standards.
- Conduct research to make water stewardship methods more consistent and to foster collaboration on standardisation.
- Collaborate on the development of standards in the field of water stewardship and support experts from CNIS to participate in the revision of the AWS Standard.
"As China continues to elevate the role of standards in driving high-quality development, we look forward to working with CNIS to optimise the architecture for scaled adoption of water stewardship standards and AWS certification."
L-R: Adrian Sym, CEO of AWS, and Fangping Luo, Head CNIS.