The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), together with the CEO Water Mandate – a partnership between the United Nations Global Compact and the Pacific Institute – has developed a new resource that explores the connection between the International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard Version 2.0) and the Net Positive Water Impact (NPWI) ambition.
‘In it together: How the AWS Standard and NPWI ambition support your corporate water stewardship journey’ highlights the complementarities of the AWS Standard V2.0 and the NPWI ambition and opportunities for companies to leverage one initiative to strengthen the other.
The report is tailored for:
- AWS Standard implementers who are curious about how the NPWI ambition aligns with their efforts, and
- Practitioners using NPWI who are interested in how the AWS Standard can support their goals.
The AWS Standard can be applied to businesses across all industries, sectors, and regions, enabling them to improve their water sustainability performance. It is structured around a plan-do-check-act framework that helps farms, factories, and other water-using facilities take verifiable actions to help protect freshwater as a shared resource. The AWS Standard V2.0 launched in 2019 and is the only international, audited standard for responsible water use that is ISEAL Code Compliant.
The CEO Water Mandate NPWI ambition is a leadership ambition set at the enterprise level and is available to any company, across any sector, industry or geography. Launched in 2024, it aims to ensure that the water user’s contributions towards a healthy basin exceed their impacts, building long-term resilience in water-stressed basins. It requires long-term commitment and input towards quantifiable outcomes. NPWI is structured into three pillars targeting key aspects of water stress: availability, quality and accessibility.
The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) and the CEO Water Mandate signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during UNGA79 and Climate Week NYC on 25 September 2024. The new resource is the partnership’s first output.
"Tackling our shared water challenges has never been more urgent. This new report, developed as part of our collaboration with the CEO Water Mandate, highlights the complementary strengths of the AWS Standard and the NPWI ambition. It outlines how an ambition can strengthen a standard’s outcomes, and how a standard ensures the consistent practices required to realise an ambition. Together, they provide a pathway for businesses to advance corporate water stewardship at a site and enterprise level."
“As the first output of our partnership with the Alliance for Water Stewardship, this resource highlights an opportunity for the NPWI ambition to become a ‘north star’, elevating water stewardship efforts across an entire enterprise, with the AWS Standard laying the foundation for the effective practices needed at the site level. The need for collective action to address shared water challenges is more critical than ever, and we look forward to our continued partnership towards a water-resilient future.”
