Water Stewardship Australia
Australia is the world’s leading pioneer of the water stewardship concept.
Water stewardship involves:
- developing stakeholder endorsed principles and standards for responsible water use by commercial water users
- establishing a verification process
- building a brand and logo that allows customers to recognise and reward responsible water users.
Water Stewardship Australia (WSA) is the not-for-profit member based entity establishing a regional water stewardship program for Australia and the Asia-Pacific. It drafted the world’s first Water Stewardship Standard.
WSA has also conducted the world’s first trial of the standard to assess water use practices in horticulture and industry.
To further strengthen the development of water stewardship standards, WSA was a founder of the global Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS). The AWS promotes the need for the global integration of regional water stewardship initiatives around a core set of principles and a common brand.
Australia’s water stewardship standard will be applicable to all major water users (rural, industrial and commercial). It is currently being revised based on experience from field testing the draft standards over the past two years.
A Commission sponsored Australian Water Stewardship Stakeholder Workshop was held in early February 2012 for organisations with an interest in the standard and its application.
The workshop had two purposes:
- to review the proposals to revise the Australian standard prior to this work being finalised
- to allow participants to liaise with the International Standards Development Committee (ISDC) of the Alliance for Water Stewardship who began to work on a global water stewardship standard in 2011.
Attending the workshop allowed the ISDC to understand the Australian process and issues and to interact with local stakeholders. Australian stakeholders were seeking to influence the direction of the international standards in order to achieve global compatibility.
The first day of workshop was an update on the development of a global water stewardship system and the background to the Australian and international standards development process. Presentations were given by international experts on developing water standards including Matthew Wenban Smith from OneWorld Standard (United Kingdom), Adrian Sym from the AWS (Germany) and Alexis Morgan from AWS and the World Wildlife Fund (United States).
That evening Water Stewardship Australia and Alliance for Water Stewardship held a joint dinner. The keynote speaker was Commission Chair Chloe Munro. The special guest was Phil Duncan, Chair of the First Peoples’ Water Engagement Council. Both spoke about water stewardship’s role in delivering sustainable and socially equitable water management in Australia.
On the second day the workshop examined proposals to revise the Australian Water Stewardship standard. Sasha Courville, Executive Director of ISEAL Alliance, the international authority on social and environmental standard setting, gave a presentation on the global requirements for good standards.
Amongst those attending the workshop were:
- Environment Victoria
- Dairy Australia
- BlueScope Steel
- Inghams Enterprises
- National Australia Bank
- SA Water
- NetBalance
- Goulburn Broken CMA
- Melbourne Water
- Kilter Pty Ltd
- Victorian National Parks Association
- World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Once established, Australia’s water stewardship standards will be applied via a process in which Water Stewardship Australia accredited certification bodies will assess applicants and verify their compliance.
Certified water stewards will be licensed to use the globally recognised Water Stewardship brand to promote their compliance, thereby gaining recognition and rewards for their commitment to responsible water use.
Finalising an Australian water standard will further promote, reward and encourage stakeholders to manage water responsibly and to invest in relevant innovation.