NEXUS WATEREnvironmental claims policy
DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION. NVWS v0.1 (October 2026). This is a proposed Nexus Water DAO LLC standard. It is not approved, adopted or independently assured. The methods have not been approved by an independent technical council. No Verified Water Credits (VWC) have been issued, and none are offered for sale. References to WRI, AWS, Gold Standard, ISO, EPA, FTC, SEC, CFTC or any other organization are not endorsements. Comments: josh@nexuswater.xyz
Version 0.1 · 2026-10-03 · Nexus Water DAO LLC
Status: proposed Nexus policy / technical draft. Not an approved or independently assured credit standard.
Claim types
| Claim type | Required state | Permitted meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Funding contribution | Executed funding agreement and substantiated funding | Specified project support; not exclusive ownership of all outcome |
| Forecast | Explicit assumptions and future period | Estimated potential, never verified or issued |
| Verified project result | Completed opinion, metric and scope | Measured project benefit; no implication that reporter owns all attribution |
| Holding | Active units owned under valid agreement | Inventory position, not retired performance |
| Retirement | Valid terminal record and approved target/claim scope | Beneficiary’s allocated exclusive outcome use under the stated framework |
| Invalidated | Correction record | Historical record only; no continuing positive outcome claim |
PROPOSED NEXUS POLICY: exclusive environmental-use claims require retirement. This is a Nexus control, not a claim that all external frameworks universally mandate token retirement. Record whether a goal uses contribution accounting or exclusive ownership; prohibit contradictory claims under the same allocation.
Deterministic claim template
“[Beneficiary] retired [quantity] VWC-[class] representing [quantity] m³ of verified eligible [specific metric] from [project], [source catchment], during [period], calculated under [methodology/version] and independently verified by [actual verifier]. Retirement [ID], dated [date]. [Material limitations].”
Only insert independently verified when the actual report and independent organization exist. A payment does not automatically grant attributes; an installation rebate may reserve some or all outcome rights for the utility.
Generation gates
Resolve the current retirement record, its beneficiary and legal authorization, each serial interval, batch, vintage, class, metric, source geography, methodology version and assurance opinion. Confirm no active dispute or invalidation. Match the buyer target separately. Bind the resulting text and structured record to a policy version and evidence version; regenerated claims disclose changed status. Keep original certificates inspectable with current-status warnings. Invalidation suppresses positive templates and triggers notification to prior report recipients.
A narrowly accurate sentence can still mislead by context or implication. Qualified reviewers examine campaign headlines, imagery, adjacent statements and implied endorsements. AI suggests or flags language; a deterministic renderer and human reviewer control approved publication.
Prohibited default claims
Block unqualified water neutral, water positive, zero environmental impact, 100% sustainable, offset all water use, carbon neutral, government approved, AWS certified, WRI certified, tax deductible, guaranteed return and ownership of physical water. A separately reviewed framework may authorize a carefully scoped statement; generic text matching alone does not substantiate it.
Co-benefits retain their methodology, boundary, uncertainty, vintage and ownership. An estimated 12,400 kg CO₂e avoided is not 12.4 issued carbon credits. If separately certified, link registry, serials, method, owner, vintage, retirement and overlap assessment; prevent the same attribute being sold twice. Uncertainty and increased energy/emissions must be shown, not selectively omitted.
FACT: FTC guidance addresses broad unqualified environmental claims and substantiation. The Green Guides are interpretive guidance rather than a blanket approval scheme for Nexus. Current official references are catalogued in the Nexus reference library (publication pending). Nexus phrase controls are an engineering guardrail, not a legal conclusion.