To stimulate continuous improvement of water services, EBC Foundation wishes to acknowledge utilities for their benchmarking- and improvement efforts.
In this context, EBC grants one of the following three types of Certificates to qualifying utilities, depending on the period of engagement and the way benchmarking- and improvement activities are carried out and “internalised”.
At first, a 1-Star Certificate will be awarded to utilities that:
- participate in the programme for at least two consecutive benchmarking cycles;
- timely provide good quality data;
- actively participate in the programme, in particular by attending the annual benchmarking workshop.
A 2-Star Certificate will be awarded to utilities that on top of that:
- participate in the programme for multiple years;
- actively participate in improvement efforts like knowledge exchanges or the implementation of good practices or innovations.
Finally, a 3-Star Certificate will be awarded to utilities that on top of that:
- continuously work on improving their water services;
- volunteer to organise or host improvement activities for colleague utilities, like site visits or workshops.
After each benchmarking cycle, EBC Foundation determines if participating utilities qualify for a Certificate or an upgraded one and notifies them of this.
Utilities that receive a Certificate are entitled to display the associated logo in their business communication channels (letters, newsletters, website etcetera), as long as they participate in the programme.