What is European Water Stewardship (EWS)?

The European Water Stewardship (EWS) is the integrative system for business and agriculture to assess, verify and communicate sustainable water management practices. It has been established in 2008 as a result of a wide stakeholder process, coordinated by the European Water Partnership (EWP), and embodies the collective effort and know-how of water users in agriculture and industry. The EWS follows on the Water Vision for Europe by defining a system of clear steps towards sustainable water management at operational and river basin levels.

EWS goal: The EWS provides a voluntary, applicable system to change the behavior and practices of all water users towards sustainable water management. The EWS

• Initiates private actions with independent guidance
• Provides positive incentives for sustainable water management
• Helps companies to communicate its successful implementation and achievements at operational level
• Supports existing legal processes in the European Union.

EWS development partners:

What was the motivation to set up EWS?

The EWS has been developed in a multi-stakeholder process coordinated by the European Water Partnership and including partners from business, agriculture, golf, civil society and with the support of public authorities, like the European Commission. To design it as a pragmatic tool, its applicability has been tested on industrial production sites and farms.

The EWS aims at providing a pragmatic tool to develop concrete response strategies towards sustainable water management for European water users.

It operates within the context of current EU Policy and aims to build positive incentives to promote a change in behavior and practices of water use, management and governance. The EWS will ultimately contribute to the current flagship activities of the European Commission to achieve “Resource Efficiency” and to prepare the "European Blueprint".

Why a voluntary standard-based approach?

Voluntary approaches can be a powerful tool to improve Water Stewardship practices on-site and to complement legal measures towards a sustainable water management at river basin scale.

The strength of voluntary environmental schemes lies in collecting and serving multiple interests to benefit from more flexible regulation, lower administrative burdens, and superior environmental performance. Potential weaknesses of such voluntary approaches can be mitigated by ensuring that the schemes are performance-based, transparent, involve third-party evaluation, and include sanctions or rewards.

Why a specific standard for water use?

A specific water standard is seen to be necessary because:

• Water is not correctly/exhaustively covered by other voluntary environmental standards.
• Water is key-resource of the future to ensure sustainable livelihoods and production.

Why a EWS standard?

To date, many voluntary standard schemes include water in their principles and criteria but that are focused along commodity lines. Few standards are comprehensive in how they treat water management in an integrated manner. For example, performance (e.g. impacts of water management) or cumulative impacts at river basin level are not appropriately addressed in any known standard. Accordingly, the EWS differs from current voluntary environmental standard schemes, thus being complementary to these other standards.

The EWS standard will provide a tool for Europe’s water users and their impacts of their facilities at river basin level where cumulative impacts occur.

The EWS standard is applicable in operations both at “in-fence” and river basin level, since it is evident that responsible water stewardship which remains restricted to the facility operation is frequently inadequate to reduce risk and raise the benefit on water resources at broad scale.

What are the objectives of the EWS standard?

EWS has been set up in order to:

• To build positive incentives to promote a change in behavior and practices of water use, management and governance.
• To provide a tool for water users to demonstrate corporate responsibility.
• To provide a tool to achieve integrated sustainable water (resource) management.
• To optimize the use of water on operational and river basin basis.
• To prepare the private sector for the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD).
• To support water users in general to communicate and report on their water use.
• To evaluate the use of water on a local and business basis.
• Third party verification of the water user's compliance.

• Comprises environmental, social and economic aspects.
• Is valid on global scale but based on local assessment with focus on Europe.
• Is valid across all sectors.

Why has EWS been developed by a stakeholder group?

Together with all stakeholders involved, EWS approaches challenging water issues. This active contribution of the stakeholders ensures to:

• Achieve applicable and targeted solutions from the sector for the sector.
• Highest acceptance of the EWS requirements by water users.

What is the content of the EWS system?

The EWS comprises:

• The European Water Stewardship (EWS) standard.
• The referring glossary and guideline.
• The EWS multi-site standard.
• The certification scheme.
• The referring EWS group certification scheme.
• The communication scheme.

1. Achieve and maintain sustainable water abstraction in terms of water quantity.
2. Ensure the achievement and maintenance of good water status in terms of chemical quality and biological elements.
3. Restore and preserve water-cycle related High Conservation Value (HCV) areas
4. Achieve equitable and transparent water governance.

• Performance indicator of corporate water resource management.
• Best practice tool.
• Independent proof of sustainable water management for stakeholders.
• Internal benchmarking and target setting device for water management strategies.
• Improved and optimized resource management at production site-level.
• Enhanced awareness and leadership within river basin activities.
• Visibility for and access to markets.

Why has EWS been developed by a stakeholder group?

Together with all stakeholders involved, EWS approaches challenging water issues. This active contribution of the stakeholders ensures to:

• Achieve applicable solutions from the sector for the sector.
• Highest acceptance of the EWS requirements by water users.

What are the deliverables of the EWS?

The EWS provides a robust system consisting of a standard document and the referring audit documents and evaluation schemes. The EWS system can be implemented either as a separate assessment scheme or as “add-on” to existent certification standards. Its applicability has been proved in pilot studies on-site. The EWS documents include:

• EWS Standard: Valid for all water users in all sectors in Europe, the EWS standard discloses the four Water Stewardship principles with referring criteria and indicators. This document has been developed by Working Groups Industry, Agriculture, Golf and Urban Areas and revised by external experts and in public consultations.
• Accompanying standard documents: A glossary and a guideline document, which includes a compilation of sector specific best management practices, complement the standard document.
• Checklists: Audit checklists are available to evaluate the on-site performance of a water user on-site.
• Evaluation scheme: Directly linked to the checklists, an approved evaluation scheme permits the assessment and benchmarking of the water user’s performance on-site and within the referring river basin.

What is the benefit of the EWS?

The overall benefit of the EWS is to:

• Support the development of sustainable water management response strategies on operational and on river basin level
• Provide a tool to assess the water management performance of water users in Europe
• Reinforce the implementation of legal frameworks (e.g. WFD) by active involvement of the private sector.
• Support public governance in river basins, in particular in water scarce or conflict situations.

• Mitigate physical water and political water risks.
• Receive guidance for optimized response strategies.
• Become leaders for water issues.
• Grant visibility to high-level performance to clients, authorities, shareholders and investors.
• Prepare for Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation.
• Profile their corporate activities and brands.
• Create and ensure access to high-level market sections.
• Gain from peer-to-peer and best-practice learning mechanisms.
• Benchmark performance within the sector.

• A tool to achieve effective policy enforcement at river basin level and to achieve river basin level objectives.
• Promoting sustainable water management that reduces impacts of concern.

How has the EWS standard been developed?

From November 2008 till February 2010, the EWS standard has been developed in a multi- stakeholder process coordinated by the European Water Partnership and including external experts and partners from business, agriculture, civil society and European authorities. To design it as a pragmatic tool, its applicability is tested on industrial production sites and at farms.

Milestones in standard development:

1. Technical workshop: 09.10.2009.
2. Milestone event: 31.05.2010.
3. Public consultation of standard version 1.0: accomplished on 20.09.2010.
4. Public consultation of standard version 4.5: accomplished on 07.11.2011.

What is the content of the EWS standard?

The EWS standard includes:

• 4 principles, which outline the overarching aims of the EWS Standard, and associated criteria.
• Criteria are further divided into indicators, which are used to evaluate compliance with the principles and criteria.
• Indicators are classified as major indicator, minor indicator or recommendation.
  • The major and minor indicators have to be complied with to achieve the referring objective.
  • The indicators classified as “recommendations” (“Rec.”) are non-obligatory.

• The applicability of the indicator list has been confirmed by pilot tests and by public consultations.

• Principle 1: Achieve and maintain sustainable water abstraction in terms of water quantity: Environmental flow regime / Water abstraction.
• Principle 2: Ensure the achievement and maintenance of good water status in terms of chemical quality and biological elements: Water quality.
• Principle 3: Restore and preserve water-cycle related High Conservation Value Areas. Protection of high conservation value wetlands, lakes or riparian areas.
• Principle 4: Achieve equitable and transparent water governance. Equitable governance.

How does the EWS standard work?

The on-site performance of a water user will be assessed and reported within an independent third-party evaluation process.

Step 1

The decision, not only to reduce water use, but to aim for an integrated sustainable water management, must be taken at the highest possible level of management as the investment can be high at the outset with a long period before returns on the investment are realized. For any size of business, the decision to reduce water AND to consider all other aspects of water use also demonstrates clear corporate social responsibility – the value of which must not be under-estimated.

Step 2

Technical advice can range from discussions with colleagues, observations of other practices, common sense, independent technical expertise or support through membership of an association or group. The important aspect is that a clear strategy is prepared and fully costed with benefits clearly identified.

Step 3

The EWS standard is implemented on-site and the compliance with the standard requirements is monitored and reported in the internal system plan. Points of improvement shall be identified and taken over in the management strategies.

Step 4

Certification is an independent verification that the water management system is compliant with EWS requirements. The decision to become certified must be taken for the correct reasons – Access to new markets, Corporate Responsibility or legally required etc. Certification can be performed as individual certification or as part of a multi-site or group scheme.

How does the EWS standard approach challenging issues?

Challenging issues are addressed by the following EWS guidance documents:

• Questionnaire for investigation of external water suppliers.
• Procedure for reporting on potential pollutants.
• Procedure for addressing wastewater within the production site.
• List of basic criteria for wastewater treatment plants.
• Evaluation of impacts on biodiversity in high conservation value areas and ecosystems.
• List of sector-specific best management practices.

Why pilot testing?

The goal of the development pilot studies has been to test the applicability and the completeness of the EWS system. The outcome of the pilot studies has been directly feeding in the development of the EWS system including the standard, the certification scheme and communication guidelines. The goal of the implementation pilot studies is now to test the on-site operationalization of the established EWS system in new sectors and to identify potential needs for customization. Pilot organizations receive an exhaustive analysis of their operational water management with referring points for improvement. Based on these outcomes, pilot organizations can adapt and develop an optimized water management response strategy.

What is the benefit of becoming a EWS pilot?

Participating in a pilot study provides the opportunity to:

• Act and exchange in a group of partners with high experience in water management
• Pro-actively shape the future EWS Standard for new sectors with your expertise
• Establish an integrated water management strategy for your business
• Define and mitigate risks of water use within the river basin.
• Receive guidance for optimized response strategies.
• Shape your corporate profile as pro-active water manager
• Evaluate and communicate how your business manages the natural resource “water”.

What have been the outcomes of pilot tests in 2011?

General feedback:

• Standard: "The standard is in general complete but not always comprehensibly written".
• Checklists:
  • “Checklist Industry and Agriculture and referring documents need to become more user friendly for both the audit team and for the water user, but are already applicable on-site. However, there is a need to develop a data-based evaluation tool and more direct practical help and guidance towards the implementation of sustainable water management should be provided.”
  • “For small farmers, there is a need to develop a group certification scheme since some indicators are too exhaustive on small operations scale.”
  • “Indicators regarding water reuse should be developed, in particular for water stressed regions.”
• Compatibility with other Environmental Management Systems:
  • “The EWS system has been found compatible with existing environmental monitoring systems but the terms used in the EWS system should be aligned with the terms e.g. used in ISO 14001”
  • “The EWS system is compatible with existing best management practises e.g. Global GAP.”
  • “Need to check compatibility with other (private) environmental monitoring systems.”
• Best Management Practices (BMP): "Additional BMPs should be provided within the checklists as guidance for Stewardship organizations”.
• Indicator set:
  • “Additional social aspects would be appreciated also in terms of future conflicts about water use with other stakeholders in order to achieve a holistic sustainability approach”.
  • Indicators regarding water reuse should be developed, in particular for water stressed regions.
• Evaluation System:
  • “The evaluation system is considered to be complex and subjective.”
  • “Strengths and improvement points table is considered to be very practical and can replace the existing evaluation system.”

What is the relation between the EWS and the Water Framework Directive (WFD)?

Voluntary approaches are powerful tool to achieve sustainable water management on-site, to implement targeted best management practices and to complement legal measures towards a sustainable water management at river basin scale. The strength of voluntary environmental systems lies in collecting and serving multiple interests to benefit from more flexible regulation, lower administrative burdens, and superior environmental performance. EWS’ added value for WFD implementation is to:

• Support active involvement of the private sector on river basin scale.
• Provide positive incentives to change behavior and practices of water use, management and governance.
• Promote acceptance of Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirements through adapted indicators in standards and checklists.
• Create a platform of prepared and pro-active “Water Stewards” taking a lead in the dissemination and implementation of the WFD goals.
• Identify challenges in the WFD implementation to improve future implementation.

What is the relation between the EWS and the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS)?

The EWS is a recognized Regional Initiative of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) and EWP was designated as coordinator of this initiative. Furthermore, EWP is active member of the AWS Board of Directors, the strategic head of AWS who aims for a globally harmonized definition and implementation of the Water Stewardship approach (www.allianceforwaterstewardship.org).