Summary
The IDEEA Group and members of AWS Asia-Pacific conducted a mission to Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) and the Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone to assess how the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) can support the monitoring, impact evaluation and reporting of the AWS Standard. A desktop study was undertaken to assess the potential benefits of linking the SEEA and the AWS to help achieve AWS water outcomes, followed by [examination] of two industrial parks (Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area and Kushan Economic-Technological Development Zone) as examples of how the SEEA and the AWS can be linked more explicitly. The findings from the two case studies indicate opportunities to apply environmental-economic accounting to other industrial parks in China. The SEEA can be used to describe the environmental context for individual companies and can help companies reduce compliance costs associated with reporting information to the multiple ministries. Most importantly, it is clear that by adopting and accounting approach of the SEEA that the data and information gathered can be applied to support the monitoring and evaluation phases of the AWS Standard.