European Water Stewardship (EWS) provides an applicable system to change behavior and practices of all water users towards sustainable water management. The EWS:

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

The EWS includes a standard and an evaluation system that makes “business sense” to adherents; mitigating physical, regulatory and reputational risks to secure the availability of water in the future.

To ensure a successful implementation of this EWS standard, pilot studies are conducted to test the applicability of the standard and the referring checklists and guidelines under real on-site conditions. So far, two pilot rounds have been carried out at several industrial production sites and farms at different locations in Europe.

The outcome of these pilot studies has been directly feeding in the development of the EWS system including the standard, the certification scheme and communication guidelines.