Big wet footprints

Just got to grips with working out your carbon footprint? ‘Water footprinting’ is the next big thing.

How much water will you use today? A couple of hundred litres, perhaps? A little more, a little less? Whatever your guess, the chances are that you’ve seriously miscalculated. The real figure is likely to be around 4,000 litres – and that’s not a misprint. Such a high figure might seem incredible... until we stop to consider exactly what we consume in our daily lives.

In Europe, the average person uses up to 150 litres of water a day – for baths and showers, kettles, dishwashing and so on. But add to that the water required to produce the food, fibre and everyday products we consume, and the figure dramatically increases.

It’s all to do with ‘virtual water’. For example, a can of soft drink contains around 0.35 litres of water, yet it requires an average of 200 litres to grow and process the sugar contained in that one can. By the same calculation, it takes some 4,000 litres of water to ‘grow’ a cotton shirt – and an extraordinary 8,000 litres to produce a pair of leather shoes.

“The UK is now the world’s third largest net importer of water in agricultural products,” asserts Stuart Orr, WWF’s freshwater policy officer. “Around 59% of the water required to produce our food originates in other countries – and with industrial output and the world’s population increasing at present rates, the implications are profound.”

That’s why WWF is engaging with high street retailers and other commercial interests to develop a water footprint measurement. “In exactly the way we’ve introduced an ecological footprint measurement, we now want to progress to a company water footprint,” Orr explains. “It’s undoubtedly in industry’s interests to thoroughly analyse its use of water, and to reduce its consumption wherever possible.”

Here in the West, we simply turn on a tap and this colourless, odourless liquid gushes forth in limitless streams – give or take a hosepipe ban or two. What’s more, it’s still relatively cheap. Yet more than a billion people around the world lack any source of safe drinking water near their homes, a number that’s expected to almost double within 20 years. In many of these countries, precious water resources are being devoured by thirsty crops such as cotton, which end up on the rich world’s high street racks.

So it’s essential that any footprint includes not only how much water we use in our consumption and industrial processes, but also when and where it’s used, and the type of water it is. There’s a huge difference, for example, between recycled water and supplies taken directly from a river. This calculation becomes all the more important with climate change threatening our weather patterns. “In southern Africa,” says Orr, “companies with extensive supply chains – such as bottling plants and sugar manufacturers – have already closed down as the water supply ceases. Business would do well to remember that water shortages translate into energy price inflation, higher insurance and credit costs, reputational risk and reduced investor confidence.”

The problem of water scarcity won’t, of course, be solved by unilateral efforts alone. The challenge for businesses exposed to risks is to go beyond piecemeal attempts to reduce their consumption levels, and to support effective water governance. As part of its work on freshwater, WWF has begun discussions with businesses such as Marks & Spencer, and with academia and other NGOs to establish water footprint standards for companies. It’s a first step towards a forum where businesses can measure their impacts, reduce where necessary, and introduce sensible management of a commodity that’s becoming scarcer each day.

Summer is approaching, and as we prepare to fill our pools and water our gardens, let’s remind ourselves that we’re hugely fortunate to be the ‘haves’ rather than the ‘have nots’. And that it’s not going to stay like that for ever.

20 March 2008

Peter Denton