Post by ERM

For a long time, water and nature were run as separate corporate workstreams. The latest update to the AWS International Water Stewardship Standard quietly ends that. Biodiversity is now named explicitly, basin condition includes ecosystem health, and the standard reads for the first time like a nature framework as much as a water one. That shift is overdue, and it's the conversation I'm most looking forward to at the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS). At ERM we've been deliberately aligning our water and nature offerings ahead of this because clients were already asking for it: – One integrated basin lens behind AWS, TNFD, CSRD and CDP submissions, instead of four parallel assurance exercises.  – Water-and-nature site diagnostics running across the 1,073 client sites we operate in within the 85 Water Action Hub priority basins, where freshwater ecosystem risk and biodiversity risk overlap most sharply.  – Catchment programmes designed for both outcomes replenishment volume that also stands up as habitat condition, not just litres on a dashboard.  – Disclosure-grade evidence that survives auditor and financier scrutiny under the new combined nature-and-water lens. Water stewardship at basin scale, with nature integrated into it, is where the next decade of resilience and ESG value will be built. At the same time, nature-based solutions can strengthen climate adaptation and, in turn, improve business resilience. Andrea Arca | Daniele Strippoli | Helen Seyler | Andrea Gigliuto | Ryan A. | Sarah MacKay | Sophie Ménard #WaterStewardship #A4WS2026 #BasinResilience