Michael Spencer conceived the idea of establishing an international ‘water stewardship council’ in Australia in 2006. He brought Andrew Kinnaird and OneWorldStandards Director Matthew Wenban-Smith on board, and together they founded the Water Stewardship Initiative (WSI) to develop the concept. Determined to ensure that water stewardship would be developed globally and collaboratively, they then invited the US-based Pacific Institute and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and UK-based Water Witness International (WWI) to join them, creating the international Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS).

Matthew’s role was to develop the first version of the Alliance’s international water stewardship standard, published in June 2009. Key decisions were to include water governance and social issues as fundamental building blocks of water stewardship, and to establish requirements for site- as well as catchment-level assessment criteria. The concept of ‘high conservation value wetland, lake or riparian areas‘ was created, evolving later into the AWS’s ‘Important Water-Related Area’ (IWRA).

?I appreciated both Matthew?s technical know-how on standard system design and operation, and the way he was able to lead diverse groups with different interests and opinions through complex challenges to consensual solutions. I?ve yet to meet someone who understands standards and strategies for their development as well as Matthew.? ? Nick Hepworth, Director of Water Witness International

The Alliance for Water Stewardship is now a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organization (SCIO) based in Edinburgh, Scotland, with more than 180 member organisations ranging from civil society organisations like WaterAid to major corporations such as PepsiCo and Diageo.