Alliance for Water Stewardship North America

Central to aws's work is the international Water Stewardship standard, developed through a global multi-stakeholder process. Aws provides a framework for major Water users to understand their Water use and impact, and to work collaboratively and transparently for sustainable Water management within a watershed context. Aws has emerged in response to the need for major Water users to be systematically engaged in addressing shared Water challenges at the level of a watershed. The aws standard provides a comprehensive approach to Water risk management that accommodates a range of other tools that are in common use.the aws standard and associated training and accreditation programs help organizations:- understand their Water use in the context of a catchment - manage Water risks at site level and through supply chains- build internal capacity through a step-wise learning approach - access specialist support - demonstrate real leadership in addressing Water challenges- promote Water Stewardship (e.g. Via supply chains or catchment managers)2016 saw significant uptake of the aws standard in pursuit of certification. Registrations were received from sites in Water stressed locations in a diverse range of countries including usa, china, india, pakistan, mexico, lebanon and vietnam. Aws and its regional partners delivered training in a similarly diverse range of countries. There was also increased visibility of the value that the aws standard delivers for sites who are not pursuing certification. The aws Water Stewardship program is designed to create value for civil society organizations, public sector agencies, and for businesses. for civil society organizations it provides an efficient, cost effective mechanism to help achieve specific social, environmental or sustainability objectives, for example, to maintain or restore freshwater habitats, prevent pollution, secure social access to safe Water supplies and such like.for public sector agencies it supports the achievement of water-related public policy objectives, for example by helping to engage potentially competing interests and align stakeholders (including businesses as well as local communities) around agreed watershed/ catchment level goals, and by reducing the cost of ensuring compliance with legal requirements.for businesses it provides a system to help them to identify, evaluate, manage and reduce their water-related business risks; and, recognizes and rewards businesses that conform with the aws standard.