What is Water Stewardship?

What is Water Stewardship?

Water stewardship is the use of water that is socially and culturally equitable, environmentally sustainable, and economically beneficial, achieved through a stakeholder-inclusive process involving site- and catchment-based actions. The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard—the leading global framework—defines water stewardship as going beyond operational water efficiency to encompass collective action within shared watersheds, recognizing that water challenges cannot be solved by individual actors alone.

Why It Matters

Water stress affects 2.3 billion people globally, with the UN projecting that 40% of the world's population will face water scarcity by 2030. For businesses, water risk is operational risk: manufacturing facilities need reliable water supply, agricultural supply chains depend on irrigation, and energy production requires cooling water. CDP's 2024 water security questionnaire revealed that companies reported $70 billion in water-related financial impacts, with the highest exposures in food, mining, power generation, and textiles.

Traditional water management focused narrowly on operational efficiency—reducing water consumed per unit of production. While important, this approach fails when the watershed itself is stressed. A factory can halve its water use but still face supply disruptions if the river it draws from is over-allocated. Water stewardship broadens the lens from site-level efficiency to watershed-level sustainability.

The AWS Standard provides a certifiable framework that leading companies use to demonstrate responsible water management. Nestlé, Mars, AB InBev, and other multinationals have achieved AWS certification at facilities in water-stressed regions, providing credible evidence of their commitment to shared water challenges. Certification requires stakeholder engagement, catchment assessment, and collective action—not just internal efficiency improvements.

Investor scrutiny of water risk is intensifying. SASB identifies water as material for 40+ industries. The TNFD framework includes water-related dependencies and impacts. Water-stressed supply chains face physical risk (drought, contamination), regulatory risk (allocation restrictions, pricing reforms), and reputational risk (community conflict over shared resources).

How It Works / Key Components

The AWS Standard follows five steps: gather and understand (water-related data and stakeholder interests), commit and plan (set targets and action plans), implement (execute site and catchment actions), evaluate (monitor progress against targets), and communicate and disclose (report transparently to stakeholders).

Water risk assessment combines internal operational data (consumption, discharge quality, source vulnerability) with external basin-level analysis (water stress indices, allocation frameworks, competing uses, climate projections). Tools like WRI Aqueduct, WWF Water Risk Filter, and WBCSD's Global Water Tool provide basin-level data that contextualizes site-level performance.

Collective action distinguishes stewardship from conventional water management. Companies engage with other water users, local government, communities, and environmental organizations to address shared challenges—watershed protection, infrastructure investment, allocation reform, pollution prevention. These partnerships deliver outcomes that no single actor could achieve independently.

Governance and continuous improvement ensure sustained performance. Water stewardship committees, water accounting systems, regulatory compliance monitoring, and periodic reassessment keep programs responsive to changing conditions. The AWS certification cycle requires triennial recertification with demonstrated progress.

Council Fire's Approach

Council Fire develops water stewardship programs that connect site-level operational excellence with watershed-level collective action. We help clients assess water risks across their value chains, build stakeholder engagement strategies, pursue AWS certification, and integrate water stewardship into broader ESG disclosure and risk management frameworks.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is water stewardship different from water efficiency?

Water efficiency focuses on reducing water use per unit of output—an internal operational metric. Water stewardship encompasses efficiency but extends to watershed health, stakeholder engagement, water quality, and collective action. A water-efficient facility in a dying watershed is not practicing stewardship.

Which industries face the greatest water risks?

Agriculture (70% of global freshwater withdrawals), mining, power generation, food and beverage, textiles, and semiconductors face the most direct water risks. However, virtually all companies have water exposure through their supply chains, particularly in agricultural raw materials.

What is the AWS Standard?

The Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard is the global benchmark for responsible water use. It provides a certifiable framework for site-level water management within a catchment context, requiring water balance assessment, stakeholder engagement, target-setting, and collective action. AWS certification signals credible water stewardship to investors, regulators, and communities.