Tracking the ‘Water Footprint’

Tracking the ‘Water Footprint’
By Azadeh Ensha
March 24, 2009

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/tracking-the-water-footprint/

Water forum “Water neutrality” was a hot topic in Turkey last week.

Last week, delegates from over 100 countries converged in Istanbul for the Fifth World Water Forum.

Among the many topics of discussion at the weeklong conference, which ended Sunday (World Water Day), was one that has been gaining steam for the last couple of years: “water neutrality.” The idea — conceptually analagous to minding one’s carbon footprint — is that companies ought to be tracking their water footprints as well.

“Water neutrality is a relatively new idea put forward by a small number of corporations to try to address their use of water,” said Peter H. Gleick, a co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute, which is working with the United Nations to develop more robust corporate reporting of water use.

There is little agreement over how water footprints should be measured.

“At its simplest, the idea is that a corporation that is trying to be water-neutral will somehow compensate for the water they use in their processing — and on net, not use any excess water,” Mr. Gleick said. “That’s the theory,” he added, “but the practices are going to be more difficult.”

The U.N.’s CEO Water Mandate is attempting to develop, implement and disclose water sustainability policies and practices — though some critics have dismissed the program as greenwash:

“It is a devious initiative by some of the global water giants to position themselves as environmental stewards while also exercising even more control over water management,” wrote Richard Girard of the Polaris Institute, a group that aims, according to its Web site, to “unmask and challenge the corporate power.”

However legitimate those charges, several companies are making at least a token effort to adress their water use — and some are claiming bolder ambitions. E. Neville Isdell, for instance, the chairman of Coca-Cola — which sells 1.5 billion beverages a day in over 200 countries and, in 2006, used 80 billion gallons of water to produce its beverages — has pledged, “to replace every drop of water we use in our beverages and their production, to achieve balance in communities and in nature with the water we use.”

Whether or not the company will achieve that goal remains an open question — particularly given that it’s unclear where to attribute responsibility for water use along a product’s supply chain. Does a beverage maker, for example, account for the water used to grow the sugar that is eventually used in their products? Or is that part of the supplier’s water footprint?

Meanwhile, the World Water Forum’s sustainability efforts hit a message-snag early on last week, when Turkish police fired water canons at crowds of protesters.

The officers said water was “the cheapest way” to keep the crowds at bay.