AWS certification allows a facility to demonstrate its commitment to water stewardship while helping others in the region collaborate on best practices in water conservation. AWS-certified factories use more advanced water-saving measures than non-certified ones, ensuring a smaller footprint in the watershed. An AWS-certified facility is also able to better track its stewardship efforts, and is more involved in communicating and coordinating with other stakeholders in the watershed to meet shared conservation goals. Taken together, these steps foster better community engagement, costs savings at the plants, and increased water availability at the source.
What sets AWS apart from other environmental standards?
The AWS Standard is the first-ever comprehensive global standard for measuring responsible water stewardship across social, environmental, and economic criteria. These factors span geographical and socioeconomic lines, such as the impact upon disadvantaged communities with difficulties accessing water; environmental quality at water-related locations like marshes; and whether water is being managed in a way that provides a positive economic benefit.
This means that a facility is not just assessed based on its water use and efficiency within its four walls, but on how operators are engaging with other water users and stakeholders around the facility. These relationships determine shared water challenges and water-related risks, encouraging opportunities for collaboration toward responsible and sustainable water management.
The AWS Standard also has the unique benefit of being created and supported by prominent environmental conservation groups, development organizations, and industry leaders, such as CDP, The Nature Conservancy, The Pacific Institute, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
To date, how many sites have been AWS certified globally? In how many countries?
Only eight sites in the world in seven different countries have achieved AWS certification. Of those, three are Nestlé Waters facilities: one in Pakistan and two in California, U.S. Nestlé Waters is the only beverage company in the world to have factories that are AWS certified.