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Glossary
Water standards and regulation

What is AWS Standard (Alliance for Water Stewardship)?

Definition

The AWS Standard is the Alliance for Water Stewardship's site-level framework for responsible water use within a shared catchment, certified through independent audits at three levels.

Who certifies to it

Sites that draw from a shared catchment certify to it: food and beverage plants, mines, textile mills, farms and, increasingly, data centers. AWS here is the alliance, not a cloud provider. The alliance reports more than 400 certified sites, and audits are arranged through Water Stewardship Assurance Services, its assurance provider.

Version 3.0, outcomes and levels

Per the Alliance for Water Stewardship, Version 3.0 launched globally in Tokyo on 18 March 2026, followed by a one-year transition after which all initial and recertification audits use V3.0. Sites certified to V2.0 keep V2.0 surveillance audits until their certificate is due. The five outcomes are good water governance, sustainable water balance, good water quality status, healthy freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity, and safe water, sanitation and hygiene for all.

  • Core: every Core criterion met, the minimum for certification
  • Gold: all Core and Gold criteria met
  • Platinum: all Core, Gold and Platinum criteria met for one or more outcome areas

Site water balance and quality evidence

The sustainable water balance outcome starts with knowing every inflow and outflow on site. The aQ WaterGuard twin shows main supply, uses, reuse flow and the unaccounted loss term, while TDS in and out on the RO unit and BOD out on the STP give continuous discharge quality readings between lab samples.

Questions

AWS Standard (Alliance for Water Stewardship): common questions

The AWS Standard is a certification for water stewardship at individual sites, set by the Alliance for Water Stewardship, a global membership body. A certified site shows it understands its catchment, manages its own water balance and quality, and works with other users on shared water challenges. It complements CDP water security disclosure.

Gather and understand, commit and plan, implement, evaluate, then communicate and disclose. The steps loop, so each audit cycle starts with an updated understanding of the catchment, the site's own water balance and the actions agreed with other water users in that catchment.

Yes. The Alliance for Water Stewardship allows a V3.0 certification audit before the V2.0 certificate expires. A site that moves early gets the new outcome structure sooner, but it should confirm with its assurance provider that the evidence it holds matches the V3.0 criteria.

A site water balance with every inflow and outflow, water quality data for discharges, and records showing that targets were tracked. Aqueduct supplies the metered balance, reuse flow and treatment plant readings, as in the water reuse use case. The site prepares the audit with its assurance provider.

See Aqueduct on your own facility.

Bring a site, a utility bill or a question. We will show you where the loss is.

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