Water stewardship guidance document for energy companies
The availability of water of the right quality is essential for energy companies to protect their business continuity. At the same time, the energy sector has an impact on the availability and quality of water, including drinking water. This has consequences for people and the environment. The challenge is: how can energy companies manage those interests sustainably? To tackle this issue, Ipieca* commissioned Witteveen+Bos to develop a guidance document.
Water stewardship encompasses proactive, integrated measures to protect and improve the availability and quality of water for people and the environment. This sounds straightforward, but is complicated by several factors, including the absence of uniform, generally accepted terminology.
This is why we prepared a guidance document in partnership with Ipieca, which includes a glossary with definitions of the most important terms. For the sector, it is important to employ common definitions to avoid confusion, for example when sharing best practices.
Connecting with existing initiatives
The guidance document also incorporates a step where challenges for each energy carrier are identified and action plans are made to tackle those challenges. They are grouped into the following topics: good water policy, sustainable water balance, good water quality, important water-related areas and ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene’ (WASH). These are followed by a simplified overview with specific suggestions for action and performance indicators.
It is important that energy companies can link their ambitions and water stewardship measures with existing sustainability initiatives and reporting methods, such as CSRD. This guidance document makes an important contribution to that goal.
* Ipieca is a partnership of leading energy companies from across the globe. It acts as an ‘industry interface’ to the United Nations, NGOs and research institutes for climate policy, the environment and social issues.
More information?
Witteveen+Bos has a proven track record in helping companies, such as Shell, adopt water stewardship, from baseline studies and master planning to implementation.
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