The AWS Standard can be used: broadly, as a framework to guide water stewardship and link water initiatives/tools; as a “how to” guide for responsible water stewardship; and as the basis for conformance under AWS verification and making AWS-related claims. ...
The AWS Standard may be implemented by any water user, but will likely prove to be more helpful for larger water users as they will see bigger benefits, as will those operating in water stressed environments. This includes implementation by farmers, factories, manufacturing facilities, water service providers / utilities, and any other individual sites that withdraw or consume large volumes of water in catchments facing challenges related to water availability or water quality. The Standard may be implemented by smaller sites and entities, but may require such sites to work together and/or gain assistance to complete all of the requirements of...
An implementer is a specific site, facility, farm or geographically-bounded operation that is putting the AWS Standard into practice. A promoter is not directly implementing the standard, but rather encouraging others to implement and “using” the standard to advance their interests. For example, a farm that was using water may choose to be an implementer to address their shared water challenges, while the retailer that sources from that farm (or investors in the retail company), may be promoters to address their supply chain water risks....
The AWS Standard is intended to help users implement responsible water stewardship that can help to mitigate against your water risks, address your shared water challenges, improve your efficiency and ultimately strengthen your reputation of a user through verified claims. Implementers of the AWS Standard may gain access to markets, address investor concerns, and help to drive innovation and new business opportunities. Promoters of the AWS Standard may be able to drive change in water resource management and thereby address their water-related concerns....
The Standard’s overall objective is to encourage sites to pursue responsible water stewardship. It does this by outlining actions that help sites address their shared water challenges and mitigate their water risks. The end result is the furthering of AWS’s mission including the minimization of negative impacts and the maximization of the positive impacts of social, environmental and economic water use....