In plain English
International Water Stewardship Standard
International Water Stewardship Standard is a water method run by Alliance for Water Stewardship. People often refer to it by its code, AWS Std. It works in the site stewardship space.
In short
Certifies sites and practices against catchment-level water stewardship, as the credible basis VWBA builds on.
What it is
The International Water Stewardship Standard from the Alliance for Water Stewardship is a framework for responsible water use at a site and catchment scale. It sets out a five step process covering commitment, gathering and understanding, planning, implementation, and evaluation, with criteria addressing water balance, water quality, important water related areas, water governance, and access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. Sites that meet the criteria can be certified at core, gold, or platinum levels. The standard certifies water stewardship performance and does not itself issue tradeable water credits.
What it rewards
The reward is a credit called a Water Stewardship Certification (AWS). One credit stands for one certified site. One cubic metre of water supplied, purified or conserved. A whole period of work is issued as one batch of credits at a time, in the same way a registry issues a batch.
What gets measured
To earn AWS credits, a project has to measure and prove a few things. An independent reviewer checks the evidence before any credits are issued.
The catchment and the kind of water work being done, such as replenishment, saving water or cleaning it up.
The starting water balance for the catchment, before the project.
The net amount of water benefit measured for the period, checked by an independent reviewer.
Who takes part
Standard Registry. Owns the policy, approves participants, anchors each issuance to its evidence.
Project Proponent. Registers the project and submits monitoring reports.
Validation & Verification Body. Independently validates the design and verifies monitored data.
How it works
- 1
The project team registers the project and its plan.
- 2
An independent reviewer checks that the plan is sound and that the benefit is real and would not have happened anyway.
- 3
The team looks after the site and measures the agreed indicators over time.
- 4
The independent reviewer verifies those measurements.
- 5
Credits are issued for the verified result, and a buyer can retire a credit to claim the benefit once.
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