Water Footprint Neutrality
A Water Footprint is the entire volume of water needed to produce, process, package and transport a good or execute a service. This is the volume of water that needs to be recycled and compensated for a company to become completely water neutral.
Water neutrality is fairly new in the world of sustainability. Consequently, there are very few formulas or models for us to rely on. Hopefully, one day it will be just as easy to measure your water footprint, as it is nowadays to be measure your carbon footprint.
Currently, the steps to take are the following:
1. after measuring & analyzing your water footprint, reduce, reuse or recycle the water you use as much as possible
2. then offset the volume of water that could not be reused, reduced or recycled, by investing in water systems/projects in the region you withdraw the water, or in water-scarce regions on this planet
3. communicate about the water footprint, and involve stake-holders in the process (to inspire them to neutralize their water footprint or help you reduce yours)
Water neutrality is not as advanced as carbon neutrality yet, but this does not mean we can’t be part of the solution. We design our Water Footprint Compensation programs based on the three pillars above.
A Symbolic Formula
The water footprint varies from the carbon footprint in a sense that water has a local impact on the environment and society where the water has been used or extracted, whereas carbon emissions affect global ecosystems.
In order to truly compensate ones water footprint, one should give back fresh water in the exact place it was consumed. Virtual water import and
export and complex supply chains, make this very difficult to do. Very few guidelines or toolkits have been created yet to help companies address this challenge. As such, GreenAdsBlue makes use of a symbolic Water Footprint compensation formula: besides reducing the footprint of our clients, we compensate water consumption by supporting water projects that provide fresh water to local communities in water-scarce regions all over the world.
We use the formula of the Millenium Development Goals. Following this, it costs approximately 20 euro's to provide 1 person with clean drinking water for 15 years.
CASE: GreenGraffiti®
GreenGraffiti® offers a sustainable alternative for traditional outdoor advertising. With the help of a template, water and a power washer, GreenGraffiti® cleans advertisement messages or logo’s out of the dirt. GreenGraffiti® already compensates its Carbon Footprint, but realized that - in order to be truly green - it needed to address its water footprint as well. Together with The Value Agency the organization designed a Water Footprint Compensation program, based on three pillars:
1.reduce: creating awareness amongst our employees on water and the water footprint and stimulate them to use only the smallest volume of
water necessary to apply the messages
2.compensate: for every liter water that has been used to execute our campaigns, we make sure that one liter of freshwater will be created in waterscarce regions in developing countries (by setting up partnerships with a local NGO)
3.inspire: sharing the story behind GreenAdsBlue with our partners and clients, to inspire them to compensate for their water footprint as well
In 2009 GreenGraffiti® provided 52492 liters of water. One person requires around 20 liters of water per day to survive, this means that more than 8 persons have had clean drinking water for an entire year. The number of liters that will be provided in 2010 has already reached 42156!
