Water Stewardship Pioneers Needed

There is an urgent need for a collaborative approach to managing water, our most precious natural resource. Water Stewardship is rapidly gaining traction as a response to the looming and catastrophic challenges surrounding unsustainable water use. A definition of water stewardship is: ‘to ensure the use of water that is socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial, achieved through a stakeholder-inclusive process that includes both site- and catchment-based actions’ or defined more succinctly as ‘Stewardship is about taking care of something that we do not own.’ (Alliance for Water Stewardship, 2019) 

From a commercial perspective, water stewardship makes robust business sense. The main advantage of adopting water stewardship in an organisation relates to risk identification and mitigation. For example, using the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard, organisations can comprehensively investigate and report on how their business impacts the wider water environment against 5 outcomes: Sustainable water balance; good water quality; important water related areas; good water governance; and safe water, sanitation and hygiene for all (WASH). These 5 outcomes collectively provide organisations with a clear understanding of their business impact on the wider water environment, and importantly, identifies risks and opportunities.

If the water supply is comprised due to water scarcity, quality, or a water related conflict, a manufacturing plant may fail to meet contractual supplier obligations

For example, an identified risk might relate to the security of water supply to a manufacturing plant within a supply chain. If the water supply is comprised due to water scarcity, quality, or a water related conflict, the manufacturing plant may be unable to fulfil a contractual obligation to produce component parts. At the recent Alliance for Water Stewardship conference, a large electronic company publicly pledged to use water stewardship as method to understand this exact same challenge in relation to their smart phone components. If such a company missed a product launch there would be considerably disappointment to a very loyal fan base, and a more pointed response by their shareholders. 

Conversely, a cost-saving opportunity could be identified by assessing an organisation against the Alliance for Water Stewardship standard. An important part of the standard is the requirement to report on the water balance of an organisation. This is where the total water input is compared to water output and the various water component parts are identified and quantified. As a result of this process, water efficiency and reuse opportunities will be highlighted which may result in financial cost savings, plus the environmental benefits of improved sustainable water use. Overall, a considerable financial and reputational benefit to an organisation. 

On World Water Day, version 2 of the Alliance for Water Stewardship was released. This standard is available to download and can be used by any type of organisation to assess and report their water stewardship credentials, from manufacturing plants, food and beverage services, and non-household building types.

The standard is gaining traction fast with many large organisations publicly committing to apply this standard to their organisation. The uptake of the standard in the UK is gaining traction. Yet there is need for organisation and consultant to become pioneers.

This presents businesses with an opportunity to become an early adopter of the standard and become pioneers in their industry and sector. The standard is easy to use, comprehensive and relevant to a wide array of sectors. This year, on world water day, we encourage you to start your water stewardship journey, and become leaders in your sector.  

If you would like to discuss water stewardship further please contact via my contact page.