Authors
Will Hewes from Amazon Web Services, with Jacinta Alchouron, Jennifer Heymann, Kathleen McAllister, and Candeleria Paz from Waterplan
Summary
Water stewardship is a rapidly-growing and vital component of corporate sustainability, addressing challenges such as droughts, floods, and water pollution. This white paper explores how companies can use an integrated monitoring approach to strengthen Volumetric Water Benefit (VWB) claims. Innovations in data and technology, such as high-resolution remote sensing and machine learning, can enhance the reliability and transparency of VWB accounting and allow projects to be evaluated remotely. Quality data sources can improve the accuracy of inputs for VWB calculations, and continuous updates reflect the latest conditions. Transitioning to an integrated monitoring approach can move the industry beyond current practice of relying on pre-project benefit estimates and enhance the ability to adapt to real-time conditions and emerging risks.
These practices will not be applicable to all projects and it will take time to adopt them broadly. Challenges like local data interpretation and limited availability of high-resolution datasets are immediate barriers to widespread adoption. To overcome these challenges, companies must build internal capacity, foster collaborations with implementation partners and external experts, and invest in scalable solutions. Over time, leveraging these tools to monitor project performance will allow companies to enhance transparency, accountability, and stakeholder trust, ultimately improving outcomes for watersheds and communities.
Contributing organizations
Amazon is committed to being a good water steward everywhere it operates including through Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) ambitious goal to be water positive (Water+) by 2030. AWS will return more water to communities and the environment than it uses in its data centers, which operate across 30 regions. The strategy includes optimizing water efficiency, using sustainable sources like recycled and harvested rainwater, providing reuse water for communities, and investing in water replenishment projects. AWS is focused on ensuring that these efforts are managed credibly and transparently, particularly in the complex landscape of replenishment projects. So far, AWS projects are restoring 3.9 billion liters of water per year, with more projects in development.
Waterplan’s mission is to accelerate the transition to a water-secure world. Waterplan is the leading SaaS water platform to measure, report, and respond to water risk for corporate water stewardship. The platform enables companies to establish and monitor progress on water targets, find the best water projects and partners globally to achieve targets, manage project portfolios centrally, and generate investor-grade disclosure reports. Waterplan delivers data-driven, science-based, and actionable insights for effective water stewardship. To date, Waterplan has helped many companies identify watershed partners and projects, and monitor VWB impact over time, driving technological advancement in water stewardship.
