Water is vital to nearly every aspect of our lives, but the demand for better living standards is increasingly straining our limited supply of fresh water. There are many tools available to help businesses manage their water use, keeping it sustainable, economical and within regulations. The most important of these tools is the Water Footprint Assessment.
The Water Footprint Assessment gives valuable and unique information that businesses can use for water management. It calculates the amount of water consumed, that is, the water removed from immediate further use, and not the amount of water withdrawn.
“Although regulations are improving, there are still cases where they are lacking, and the water footprint helps companies wake up to their water bottom line,” says Dr. Alexander Zehnder, world-renowned water specialist.
The Water Footprint Assessment differentiates between three water types:
- Green water footprint: volume of rainwater consumed during the production process
- Blue water footprint: volume of surface water and groundwater consumed as a result of the production of a good or service
- Gray water footprint: indicator of freshwater pollution that can be associated with the production of a product over its full supply chain.
The Global Water Tool is another useful corporate water management tool. It helps companies, particularly those with operations in multiple countries, easily identify which sites are most at risk and which points in the supply chain pose challenges. Management can then make the needed plans where it really matters. Since its launch, more than 300 companies have used the Global Water Tool.
The oil and gas industry faces particularly tough water challenges. The percentage of valuable mineral, oil and gas deposits is going down all the time. More water is needed for increasingly difficult separation and extraction processes.
“Everything that we do is water related,” says Nair Mohan, Senior Manager, Research, Kemira’s Oil & Gas segment. “In some cases, there is much more water than oil involved in the extraction process, as much as six to eight times more.”
However, Mohan reports great progress: “Adding small amounts of polymer reduces friction in the flow lines, and as a consequence reduces the amount of energy needed for pumping by as much as 70 percent.”
“Collaboration is one of our key goals,” says Anne-Leonore Boffi, leader of the Water Project at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). “Although 29 companies have already joined the project, we still need more companies like Kemira to better demonstrate possible solutions as well as to bring together different kinds of companies from different sectors to innovate together and find more comprehensive solutions.”
The Water Footprint Network is carrying out similar projects. “Once a water footprint is calculated, we need to look at the sustainability of the water footprint and strategic actions—what makes sense given the economic, environmental, and social context,” says Jani Saarinen, Kemira’s representative at the WBCSD. “We want to develop a toolbox of options, and here water solution companies like Kemira can really help.”
>> Read more about the Water Footprint
>> Calculate your Water Footprint
Text Randel Wells
Photos 123 RF