The Climate Smart Utilities Recognition Programme
The IWA Climate Smart Utilities Recognition Programme aims to inspire utilities and all their stakeholders to transition to be increasingly Climate Smart and to embrace the cultural shift on three interconnected pillars for action: adaptation, mitigation, and leadership.
The IWA Climate Smart Utilities initiative invites utilities who are already taking any kind of climate smart action to apply to the IWA Climate Smart Recognition Programme, as part of the three iterative steps of the recognition journey:
- Increasing Awareness, which IWA currently supports through inviting utilities and IWA members at wide to endorse the Climate Smart Utilities Vision. IWA also offers an array of webinars, publications, and a resource web platform.
- Taking Action, which IWA inspires through the description of an ideal Climate Smart utility, as presented in the Application Guidance. IWA also offers a peer-to-peer exchange through the Community of Practice meetings and web platform.
- Celebrating and sharing the work in progress at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition 2022, where applying utilities will share their success stories and challenges. This contributes to increase awareness of key stakeholders of the transition, and to inspire action in utilities, looping back to steps 1 and 2 of the journey.
Submissions will be assessed by an independent panel to qualify the inspirational components of the stories shared, as well as to provide direct feedback to the utility on the actions taken, planned, or still to be addressed.
The first Recognition Programme event to celebrate Climate Smart Utilities will take place at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition, in Copenhagen in September 2022. This first edition is brought to the water community thanks to the support of Xylem.
The applications window for 2022 has now closed, read on for the results. Sign-up to the IWA Newsletter to stay up to date on the latest climate and water issues in the world and to be informed of the next application round for the CSU Recognition Programme.
Results of the 2022 Edition
IWA is pleased to share the results of the first edition of the Climate Smart Utilities Recognition Programme. The initiative seeks to inspire water, wastewater, and urban drainage utilities to be increasingly Climate Smart and to embrace the cultural shift on three interconnected pillars for action: climate adaptation, mitigation, and leadership. The application window for the recognition programme closed in July 2022 with 56 applications received from 34 countries and 2 territories, highlighting a truly global outreach of the programme.
The programme has received applications from utilities in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Germany, Honduras, India, Italy, Macao, Malawi, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Somalia, Spain, Uganda, UK, USA and Yemen. The applications represent a diverse array of realities and contexts.
Following a robust review, 42 applications submitted by utilities will be recognised and celebrated through the IWA Climate Smart Recognition Programme. Find out more.
