Hydric Footprints – The Next Quagmire for Companies? (Water - Part 2)

In this troubled water management environment, institutions, industrial players and researchers are continually working to improve or fine-tune innovative methods and tools in order to better address the issues faced with water today. In 2010, the increasingly-sensitive tools available for pollutant detection and the complex calculation processes involved in determining hydric footprints have given rise to a large number of articles published in many prestigious reviews. 

> Hydric footprints, the next quagmire for companies? 

- As Arjen Hoekstra and his colleagues from the University of Twente (Netherlands), mandated by UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, continue to compile complex case studies on hydric footprint calculation on their Web site Water Footprint, Brad Ridoutt, from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) published A revised approach to water footprinting to make transparent the impacts of consumption and production on global freshwater scarcity in 2010. The latter approach focused specially on 2 case studies carried out on behalf of Mars Australia (Dolmio® pasta sauce and Peanut M&M's®), and caught the attention of trade associations in particular by putting forth new calculation methods for determining the indirect hydric footprint, said to be more accurate than models based on a direct hydric footprint.

A critical look at the direct hydric footprint approach underpinning the research done by Arjen Hoekstra (shown left) and the conclusions released by Brad Ridoutt (shown right) on the complexity of the calculations required to estimate indirect footprints, presented at the Water Footprint Workshop for Corporate Pilot Testers in March 2010 before the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

- Meanwhile the International Standards Organisation (ISO) is currently looking into the creation of an International Standard For Water Footprinting and is expected to release its guidelines sometime in 2011, based in particular on the ACV - Life Cycle Assessment/LCA Tool.

Excerpts from a report on efforts to achieve standardisation, produced by consulting firm Quantis and presented at a workshop dedicated to the topic in Osaka (Japan) in June 2010.

 - In August and September 2010, Veolia Water North America presented its Water Impact Index, introduced as a tool that can be used in optimising sustainable water use, by assessing the impact of anthropic activity on the quantity AND quality of hydric resources. The indicators take into consideration a variety of factors, such as water consumption, pressure on water resources and water pollution. To illustrate the benefits of the Water Impact Index, Veolia has produced as pilot report and first of its kind: a combined water/carbon/economic footprint for the City of Milwaukee (Wisconsin). 

It is important to keep in mind that sustainable water management is – rightly – considered one of the most pressing issues, as water rarefaction could impact economic and social systems in the very near future, across many regions of the world.

 Alice Pennors - Analyst