As companies diligently calculate their carbon footprints, most organizations today are aware of how much carbon dioxide they are adding to the environment. Now the term “water footprint” is also gaining ground.
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WATER-INTENSIVE PRODUCTS
The amount of water required to produce these items:
1 kg wheat: 1,350 liters
1 kg beef: 16,000 liters
1 cup coffee: 140 liters
1 liter milk: 1,000 liters
1 kg corn: 900 liters |
“The water footprint is the total amount of water consumed in developing a product or that a company, country or individual uses,” says Lasse Gustavsson, secretary-general of WWF. “The concept of water footprint has emerged as a way to better understand how commerce and our consumption patterns infl uence the water situation in the world. For instance, to grow cotton for a T-shirt, 4,100 liters (1,100 gallons) of water are used.”
According to the World Bank, 1 billion people lack access to clean water. Given that the world’s population is growing, demand for clean water is expected to increase while climate change reduces the supply of clean water – a desperate equation unless the international community takes action.
The International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee for Environmental Management has started work on a global standard with principles, requirements and directions for calculating water footprints. The standard is to be included in the ISO 14000 series, and the aim is to make it easy to use. “
It will just become more and more important for companies to understand their water footprint and work actively to reduce it,” Gustavsson says. So count on the water footprint becoming just as important as the carbon footprint in environmental work in the not too distant future.
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