Milwaukee, Wis. – January 16, 2020
Corporations seeking to achieve AWS Standard certification and quantify the results of their water stewardship performance will now have the option to integrate EcoMetrics as a third-party verified, assured and transparent way to quantify and report on the environmental, social and economic impacts to the watershed, landscape, local communities and economies. The overall goal for both parties is to promote water stewardship by increasing the number of sites implementing the AWS Standard in North America and demonstrating results using credible and robust metrics. The AWS-EcoMetrics Crosswalk demonstrates how EcoMetrics supports AWS implementation indicator by indicator.
EcoMetrics has the ability to account for the full value (environmental, social and economic) created as a result from use of best practices that enhance sustainability performance and operations. A recent application of EcoMetrics on a 4,000 acre reforestation project at Pointe-aux-Chenes Wildlife Management Area in Montegut, Louisiana verifies that the project will generate $218 million in environmental, social and economic value, including water-related benefits, in the region over 40 years, as estimated by Restore the Earth’s EcoMetrics Model. The ability to quantify all co-benefits will help make a stronger business case for water-related stewardship efforts by strengthening the return on investment determination.
“This partnership is unique in providing a robust set of environmental, social and economic metrics to demonstrate the value of the application of the AWS Standard for a site or activity and its connection within a watershed,” said Matt Howard, Director at the Alliance for Water Stewardship North America. “The application of EcoMetrics to sites implementing the AWS Standard will provide meaningful reporting to help inform, improve and inspire actions that lead to excellence in water stewardship performance.”
This collaboration will help promote EcoMetrics’ alignment with the AWS Standard and its ability to monitor, measure and report on a company’s performance towards meeting the standard’s core criteria, leading to better water stewardship. This will assist sites to quantify and monetize the water stewardship benefits and other related co-benefits, such as carbon sequestration, created as a result of a company’s conformity to the AWS Standard and water stewardship performance. These benefits include social and economic value created to local communities and economies within the watershed that the company operates. EcoMetrics also has a robust stakeholder engagement component, as aspect fundamental to successful AWS implementation.
“Quantifiable, verifiable and credible metrics are at the heart of any sustainability intiative attempting to move the needle on holisitically improving business and other operations in a sustainble manner. Once you can review, understand and communicate on results, the stronger the business case can be made for stewardship,” said Taylor Marshall of Restore the Earth Foundation.
The impact of the partnership goes beyond achieving AWS certification, it creates a legacy of reporting, transparency and the use of metrics to boost greater understanding and awareness as to the long-term Return on Investment (ROI) and Social Return on Investment (SROI) created by endeavoring to be better stewards within a watershed.
To learn more about AWS and the AWS Standard, visit: www.a4ws.org
For more information about Restore the Earth Foundation, visit: www.restoretheearth.org
About the Alliance for Water Stewardship North America
The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) North America is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is operated out of The Water Council. The Water Council is the official Regional Partner for AWS in North America. AWS (www.a4ws.org) is a global collaboration and member governed organization comprising businesses, NGOs and the public sector. AWS members adopt and promote a universal framework for the sustainable use of water – the International Water Stewardship Standard, or AWS Standard – that drives, recognizes and rewards good water stewardship performance. The AWS Standard offers a credible, globally applicable framework for major water users to understand their own water use and impacts and to work collaboratively and transparently with others for sustainable water management within the wider water catchment context. The AWS Standard V1.0 was released in 2014 following a four-year global, multi-stakeholder consultation. In 2019, AWS released version 2.0 of the AWS Standard.
The AWS Standard is a strategic framework to help companies identify and mitigate water-related risks with their direct operations and supply chains. The standard is built on a plan-do-check-act approach to continual improvement and can be implemented in any sector (industrial, agricultural and commercial) facing any type of water-related risk (quality, quantity, regulatory and/or reputational). Further, the AWS Standard helps sites engage key stakeholders and link site-level and watershed-level actions. This makes the standard an effective tool to encourage collaborative water stewardship actions within a watershed.
About Restore the Earth Foundation, Inc.
Restore the Earth Foundation’s innovative EcoMetrics Model, accurately accounts for, in monetized terms, the environmental, social and economic co-benefits/value created by restoration. An EcoMetrics report is accredited by international standards, third party verified and ready for audit. EcoMetrics allows Restore the Earth funding partners to report back to stakeholders on the ROI and SROI of investment in environmental restoration with complete confidence.
Restore the Earth Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not for profit with a mission of restoring the Earth’s essential forest and wetland ecosystems. Restore the Earth knows that it is possible to go beyond just protecting our environment—it is possible to restore it. And when you restore the environment at landscape scale, it creates incredible value for ecosystems, biodiversity, habitat, communities, business and the Earth.
Restore the Earth works together with partners to bring solid solutions to deliver successful restoration to meet strategic objectives. Its strong public/private partnerships support its longstanding and proven track record of successfully restoring natural systems on a large scale, creating environmental, social and economic value.
For more information, please visit http://restoretheearth.org/ or follow @REF_Restores on Twitter.