The Water Footprint is a measure of humanity’s appropriation of fresh water in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted. It measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire multi-national company. The water footprint can also tell us how much water is being consumed by a particular country – or globally – in a specific river basin or from an aquifer.
Future Carbon has partnered with the Water Footprint Network, the only internationally accredited body to identify and implement water-related cost reduction. Water management can lead to analysis of how human activities or specific products related to issues of water scarcity and pollution, and to see how activities and products can become more sustainable from a water perspective. Water Footprint Assessment also helps businesses to reduce their water dependency and at the same time reduce the associated energy and operational cost.
Water Footprint Assessment allows answering a broad range of questions for private companies or organizations, the government and individuals. For example:
- Where is the water dependence in an organization or company’s operations or supply chain?
- How well are regulations protecting our water resources?
- How secure are our food or energy supplies?
- Can an individual do something to reduce his or her own water footprint and help manage water for both people and nature?
Future Carbon offers professional services to businesses and organizations to assess their corresponding Water Footprint in accordance with The Global Water Footprint Assessment Standard developed by the Water Footprint Network.
Benefits of Water Footprint Assessment:
- Support a specific business on achieving sustainable water management within their direct operations and supply chain
- Support the government and regulatory agencies on national/regional sustainable water allocations and management
- Defines benchmarks for water consumption and water pollution for a specific sector of activity or production of a specific product
- Raise awareness on water sustainability issues related to water use
A Water Footprint Assessment can be tailored to meet the goals and scope of the study. The goal of the Water Footprint Assessment clarifies what you will do in the subsequent steps: accounting, sustainability assessment and response formulation. The scope of the assessment defines the spatial and temporal scale of the study, for example whether the focus will be global or within a single catchment, whether it will span one year or multiple years, whether it will include some or all of the value chain, address one product or a facility or an entire company.
Noteworthy Affiliations of Future Carbon with regard to Addressing our Water Footprint:
- Working partner in Bangladesh of Water Footprint Network
- Technical assessor on Water PacT programme of International Finance Corporation (IFC)