Ingham's achieves second AWS certification
Pathways to global leadership
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Ingham’s Te Aroha primary processing plant has become the second Ingham’s site and the first in New Zealand to be certified against the AWS International Water Stewardship Standard. It becomes the sixth site in the world to be certified. Ingham’s Somerville plant in Australia was the first in the world to achieve Gold level AWS certification in 2015.
This achievement consolidates Ingham’s position as global leader in corporate water stewardship. Only one other corporation (Nestle) has achieved certification for two sites. Both are looking to continue to roll-out implementation of AWS Water Stewardship at other operating sites.
At a time of growing global concern over water stress, AWS Water Stewardship an important tool for companies to understand and manage their water risk exposure, address catchment challenges and collaborate with communities, governments and other businesses to address water scarcity, pollution, ecosystem services and water governance.
Good water stewardship is good business management. It shows that a business understands and is addressing its water risks, that it is managing its natural capital, is engaged with stakeholders on shared catchment challenges and that its processes for managing water have been independently verified for compliance with the AWS Standard.
Ingham’s New Zealand Managing Director Adrian Revell said: “Our industry is a large consumer of water which is used extensively throughout the production process from grain growing to farming and processing. We have been working for more than 10 years on best practice management of our water life cycle including our impact on the local catchment area and how our wastewater is treated.”
Ingham’s utilised the Alliance for Water Stewardship’s stringent standards as the framework to engage and work with the wider community to look after the local water catchment area.
Michael Spencer, Chair of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, congratulated Ingham’s on its ongoing commitment to water leadership. “Ingham’s has been a pioneer in its work on water stewardship and deserves recognition for the leadership it has shown.”
Spencer continued, “We hope Ingham’s leadership will encourage others to take up good water stewardship and collaborate to address water challenges facing New Zealand, Australia and the broader Asia Pacific Region. We live in the most stressed water region in the world and everyone has a part to play in addressing that challenge.”
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First site in North America achieves AWS certification
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Described in a recent blog post by WWF water stewardship leads Alexis Morgan and Lindsay Bass as being "a milestone commitment to protecting freshwater ecosystems and ensuring sufficient water for people and nature", AWS are pleased to recognise the first AWS Standard certification in North America. Awarded to Nestle Water's Ontario, California site it is fitting that this first (of many) North America certifications goes to a company who have made such a strong public commitment to AWS and the AWS Standard.
Nestle Waters aims to have 20 sites AWS certified globally by 2020. Currently their sites in the Asia Pacific Region (Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and China) are also in the process of implementing certification.
In achieving certification for Nestle Waters Ontario site the company paid tribute to the AWS Standard as a credible framework for companies who are serious about water stewardship.
“The AWS Standard aligns with our longstanding commitment to sustainable water management and creating shared value in the communities in which we operate,” said Nelson Switzer, Chief Sustainability Officer at Nestlé Waters North America.
“We take our responsibility as a water steward seriously, and understand how important it is to have a rigorous standard with which to measure our water resource management practices and sustainability efforts. Achieving and maintaining AWS certification will help us continue leading water stewardship practices through efficiency, water resource management and community engagement.”
Welcoming the global commitment to the Alliance for Water Stewardship made by long-standing AWS Member Nestle, Matt Howard, Director for AWS North America commented, “We are excited about what will be the first of many AWS certificates sought by Nestle in North America and beyond. This commitment to water stewardship and the AWS Standard by one of the world’s largest businesses sets an important marker down.”
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Huanglongxian village, tea garden habitat adopting AWS Standards
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Alliance for Water Stewardship and QianBai Yuan are collaborating on a project for water management and improving the water quality in the tea farm, forest, vegetable farm, wetlands and part of the residential area of Huanglongxian village. The stakeholders, including the local government, farmers and residents, are willing to participate and support the implementation of Alliance for Water Stewardship International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard).
With the current status quo in the area, farmers use chemical pesticides and fertilizers, the tea plant biodiversity is fragile, and the regional surface water quality needs to be improved. The management of water in the tea garden of QianBai Yuan could lead to reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the garden, improving the water quality of its wetland, improving the health of its ecosystem, optimizing the tea quality and reducing the surface runoff pollution.
The project would achieve improvements in three fronts: environment, economy and reputation. In the environmental aspect, it would optimize the water usage and quality while improving the health of the tea garden ecosystem. In the economics aspect, it could develop ecological tourism and promote the local tea products. From a reputational point of view, the farm would be an innovative example of good water stewardship and elevate its credibility.
QianBai Yuan has been working on the tea farm and established an environmental education base, where they introduced technology cooperation with AWS, WWF, Hohai University, Nanjing University, etc. In addition, they established a decentralized household sewage treatment demonstration and a base of rainwater collection and utilization demonstration. QianBai Yuan team constantly monitors the upstream and downstream water quality and conducts regional biodiversity survey in order to establish a tea garden habitat water management system.
In order to execute the goal to improve the water management of the tea farm, QianBai Yuan will introduce the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard and help local villagers to build pilot projects in collaboration with the Huanglongxian village government.
This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Water Partnership.
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GBRMPA visit Western Port Biosphere
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The team from Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority came down to Victoria to visit the Western Port Biosphere and witness first-hand the relationship between catchment health and marine environment. They were particularly interested in observing the positive impact of water stewardship in the Biosphere region because of the prevalence of streams, Ramsar Wetlands and the Yaringa Marine National Park. The team from the Biosphere, Alliance for Water Stewardship and GBRMPA discussed the work done to protect coastal ecosystems and marine parks through better onsite water management, and to learn how the GBRMPA manages their catchments to protect the reef.
The group visited two of the Biosphere’s water stewards, nursery TGA Australia and veggie growers Peninsula Fresh Organics, to view the great work they’re doing as part of their Site Water Stewardship Plans.
We all share the common goal of better catchment management to protect important receiving waters. It was a very productive and collaborative meeting for all parties involved and AWS looks forward to working further with GBRMA on issues related to water stewardship.
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AWS Asia-Pacific soon to have an office in Queensland
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Upcoming AWS Global Water Stewardship Forum
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Taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 31 st October and 1st November, the 2 nd AWS Global Water Stewardship Forum, convened by the Alliance for Water Stewardship, with support from the Scottish Government, will provide a platform for knowledge sharing on water stewardship.
Building on the success of 2016’s inaugural event, the 2017 Forum will provide fresh opportunity for practitioners, interested stakeholders and new entrants to deeply engage in the critical detail on water stewardship. Forum participants will reflect on practical experiences implementing water stewardship, with frank and open discussions to advance our collective impact.
Conducted in an inclusive, participatory fashion, the Forum offers a valuable space to network with leading thinkers and exchange knowledge and perspectives for the advancement of water security. Expert panels comprising practitioners from business, government and civil society will tackle the major issues in water stewardship, including:
• Stewardship’s effectiveness in advancing site and catchment water security
• Applying stewardship in agriculture, particularly small scale agriculture and supply chains
• New and emerging applications of water stewardship in the private sector
• Public sector engagement, from catchment management to national government
• Developing and communicating locally appropriate and sector specific ‘business cases’
• Connecting local and regional practice with international priorities and processes
• Stewardship’s contribution to international development and the Sustainable Development Goals
The 2017 Global Water Stewardship Forum is aimed at businesses facing water-related risks relating to operations, supply chains, local stakeholder groups and end of line consumers; public sector organizations working in water-relevant areas of policy; investors and financial service providers seeking to enhance their risk management processes; development agencies and NGOs with water related programmes and sustainability service providers who support the implementation or assessment of standards and CSR programmes.
Registrations are now open:
http://a4ws.org/
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Upcoming AWS training in China
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Alliance for Water Stewardship is offering 2 days (advanced) and 3 days (specialist) training in Shenzhen, China from 16 th to 18 th October.
The training provides steps to engage businesses into sustainable water management, understanding of the implementation methodology, in-depth thoughts regarding sustainable water, AWS certification scheme and skills for water performance measurements, water risk and regulations in China.
A certificate of excellence will be presented after the training.
Who should attend?
1. Site management who are seeking water saving and verification knowledge;
2. Auditors/Consultants/Trainers;
3. Supply Chain Compliance/Sustainability specialists & managers;
4. Industry Association leaders;
5. Catchment leaders/Government leaders;
For registration and more information:
zhenzhen@waterstewardship.cn
jack.duan@waterstewardship.cn
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