v1 Jan 2014

CALCULATING A WATER FOOTPRINT

THE BENEFITS FOR YOUR BUSINESS




This work by Lucideon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International License.


by Lucideon 2

INTRODUCTION
Water supplies in many parts of the world are
classified as stressed where demand exceeds
the resources available. Although this issue is
usually associated with heavily populated regions
with limited rainfall (e.g. western USA and the
Middle East), it is also becoming increasingly
common in areas where rainfall is relatively
plentiful, particularly in developing nations where
rising and increasingly urban populations
combine with economic growth to create huge
water demands from industry and agriculture. In
extreme cases this could result in genuine water
shortages, and at the very least, excessive
abstraction which can lead to the deterioration of
natural habitats and loss of biodiversity.
Changes to rainfall patterns as a result of Climate
Change are likely to exacerbate this issue in the
future, and result in new areas of water stress.
Many European counties, and some regions of
the UK already have water supplies that are
classified as stressed; areas of south and south
east England have lower rainfall per capita than
many Mediterranean countries. High population
density and agriculture place huge demands
upon water resources.
A number of future water stress projections have
been made; Figure 1 is a typical example. The
areas of stress in Africa, the Middle East and
Indian sub-continent will not be surprising,
however it is concerning to observe that large
areas of the UK have been given a moderate and
high stress rating, with the SE rated as extreme
stress.


Figure 1. Predicted Global Water Stress Indicators
i


The increasing demands on the UKs water
resources have been recognised by the
Government; the recent Defra white paper Water
for Life
ii
outlines the proposals to ensure
adequate future supplies. Much of the supporting
evidence for the paper comes from an
Environment Agency (EA)
ii
study around water
availability. The EA report established:
- It is likely that water supplies to some parts of
the UK are threatened
- Business as usual is not sustainable
- There must be a greater emphasis on
managing water demand

The Water for Life paper highlights the need for
major investment in new infrastructure in order to
cope with the predicted and increasingly variable
rainfall patterns; additional reservoirs and the
capacity to transfer water between regions will
We think of water of free, falling from the sky
in abundance. It is only when rivers start to run
dry, reservoirs fall low, cracks emerge in the
ground that the old certainties are shaken.
These are warning signs of what we might
expect to see in a changing climate.
The Rt. Hon. Caroline Spelman MP, Secretary of
State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
December 2011
ii



by Lucideon 3
be required. Significant reforms are also needed
for the abstraction licensing regime that was
developed in the 1960s, when environmental
concerns were a low priority. Increased
restrictions and conditions will be attached to
future abstraction consents.
A principal conclusion from the paper explains
that water is unlikely to be regarded as it is
today, a cheap and freely available resource;
prices will increase and there could be supply
restrictions in some parts of the UK.
LIKELY IMPACTS ON UK
MANUFACTURING
Electricity generation is the largest user of water
in the UK; supplies are directly abstracted from
major rivers and/or the sea. The water is primarily
used for cooling, and apart from some small
evaporative losses, all of the water is returned to
source. To prevent environmental damage, strict
limits are placed on the temperature of the
returned water. Climate change and low rainfall
can impact upon power generation: in 2003, the
French nuclear industry
iv
, which relies heavily on
abstracted river water for cooling, was severely
affected by an exceptionally hot summer; the low
river levels and high water temperatures resulted
in insufficient cooling and the temporary closure
of 17 reactors.

Water is used in many manufacturing operations,
and although the total cost of water may be
relatively small, it is a vital raw material. Within
the food, drink and paper making sectors, water
is a significant and costly manufacturing
resource, especially if the water is extracted from
the public supply network. Future cost increases
and/or restrictions on abstraction licenses would
have a considerable impact on water intensive
businesses. However, other manufacturers relying
upon water for their processes could also
encounter implications; supply disruptions can
interrupt production in extreme cases.
WHAT WILL THE FUTURE HOLD?
Water for Life discusses the future challenges
facing the UK: balancing the competing demands
of protecting the environment whilst ensuring
adequate and affordable future supplies. The
scale of these challenges is likely to increase as
the impacts of Climate Change are realised.
It is apparent that there will be changes to the
future abstraction licensing regime, with greater
weight given to the environmental impacts
associated with over-abstraction. Novel schemes
such as tradable licenses have already been
suggested. For industrial consumers of mains
water, proposals have been put forward to
increase the supply competition for large
consumers, those who use more than
5,000m
3
/year. Although this may well result in
lower prices in the short term, in the long term
prices will rise given the large investment
programmes planned by the water utilities.
A consistent thread throughout the paper is the
importance of greater water efficiency. Domestic
customers will be encouraged to adopt
sustainable water utilisation habits; this will be
introduced through a combination of awareness
campaigns and greater domestic appliance
labelling. For the industrial user of mains water, it
is envisaged that water companies will become
more proactive in encouraging water efficiency in
response to a more competitive market where
demand reduction advice will be an added value
service. This may be an optimistic assumption
based on the experience of the deregulated UK
energy market where price is the main driver,
with little evidence of energy suppliers offering
energy efficiency advice to industrial customers.
In the context of sustainability, water is becoming
an increasingly high profile issue with a number
of companies now including water consumption
as part of their overall sustainability report. It is
not surprising that high profile, water intensive
businesses such as Coca-Cola and the brewing
group SABMiller have made disclosures about
their water use; retailers (e.g. Marks and Spencer
and John Lewis) are beginning to follow suit and
take the issue seriously. Increasingly, these large
companies are making demands upon their
supply chain to disclose information about their
water use.
With increasing recognition of the environmental
impacts of the built environment and the greater
use of whole lifecycle approaches to buildings,
manufacturers of construction products are
- On average nearly 43 billion litres of water
per day is abstracted from UK rivers, lakes
and boreholes; 40% is for public water
supply and 43% for electricity generation.
- The average person uses approximately
150 litres of water per day.
- About 25% of the water entering the public
supply network is lost through leaks.

by Lucideon 4
coming under increasing pressure to disclose the
quantity of water associated with the
manufacture of their products. In the UK, BREs
Green Guide scheme
v
is the accepted assessment
for sustainability of construction materials and
products. Under this scheme, products are
classified according to a ranking system where
A+ has the least environmental impact and E the
greatest. The impacts are assessed under a whole
lifecycle approach against 13 criteria; one of
which is water extraction. With this in mind,
manufacturers will need an accurate picture of
their water usage when looking to achieve a
Green Guide rating.

All of these facts indicate a need for businesses
to develop a greater understanding of their water
consumption: how it is used, where it is used, and
the quantity used. Without this fundamental
information, progress cannot be made in
managing this vital resource; exposing businesses
to the risks associated with price rises and supply
restrictions. Developing a water footprint is an
ideal first step towards water management.
WHAT IS A WATER FOOTPRINT?
A water footprint provides a comprehensive
water consumption audit of a business, product
or an individual consumer. A business footprint is
calculated as an index related to output, and is
expressed in terms of m
3
of water per tonne, or
alternatively through another unit of output. A
detailed footprint can include a full cradle to
grave lifecycle analysis and consider all possible
water inputs including the embedded water
consumption associated with raw materials. The
calculation provides a clear and meaningful water
consumption statement by which a business is
able to benchmark against for future
improvement measurements.
There are numerous guidance notes, procedures
and protocols for developing a water footprint;
the difficulty lies with developing a generic
methodology that can be applied to a wide
variety of scenarios. ISO 14046 is currently in
development and is likely to become the
accepted international standard for developing a
water footprint to ensure that all footprints are
calculated to a consistent standard. The
standard will also define how the different types
of water sources (e.g. mains or abstracted) and
discharges should be considered, and how the
context of local environmental and socio-
economic conditions should be taken into
account.
With the need to manage water resources more
effectively, combined with the increasing
pressures to report sustainability indicators,
businesses can derive a number of benefits from
conducting a water footprinting. The exercise
can: identify cost reduction opportunities,
provide a benchmark, and demonstrate a clear
commitment to environmental management in
support of corporate sustainability claims and
credentials.
CALCULATING A WATER FOOTPRINT
Calculating the full lifecycle water footprint of a
manufacturing business, including the embedded
water of the raw materials can be an extremely
complex and time consuming exercise. Suppliers
are often unable to provide information about
their products as water footprinting is a relatively
new concept. The situation becomes more
complicated if the end product consumes water
(e.g. a washing machine). With situations of this
ilk, much of the data is estimated and hence an
incomplete picture given; the footprint is
therefore of questionable value.
A more pragmatic approach is for manufacturers
to consider just the water footprint of their own
operation (i.e. the factory boundary); the base
information for the footprint would be a
compilation of all the water inputs and outputs
over a given time period (e.g. 12 months). This
approach is illustrated in Figure 2: all the possible
water inputs and outputs for a hypothetical
ceramics manufacturer. In this example, the
water inputs associated with raw clay materials
are significant; one of the major water outputs is
evaporation during the firing and drying
processes.
The drivers for increasing disclosure have
been recognised by some industry sectors, for
example the precast concrete manufacturers
in the UK have been reporting their collective
water consumption (as one of a number of
sustainability KPIs) since 2006. The average
mains water consumption in the industry has
fallen from 108.5 litres/tonne of finished
product in 2008 to 99.4.litres/tonne in 2010.
Source: British Precast
vi



by Lucideon 5

Figure 2. Components of a Product Water Footprint

The usual approach is to then express the
footprint as a production metric, e.g. litres of
water per tonne of product. This is a relatively
simple exercise and can provide a high level
performance benchmark which can serve to
show the importance of water to the business,
especially if the footprint is expressed in terms of
the cost, as well as the volume of water. This
exercise often highlights the true cost of water to
a business, including both the purchase cost of
mains water and trade effluent charges.
However, a more detailed disaggregated water
footprint would be much more useful, it allows
comparisons to be made between different
products and manufacturing lines within the
same factory. A major barrier in developing a
more detailed picture is a lack of data; many
businesses rely on a single water meter on the
main supply and sub-meters are often scarce.
Where meters do exist, they are often read
infrequently. A more detailed water balance can
be developed through conducting some simple
measurements; a bucket and stop watch can
yield very useful information, and more
sophisticated approaches using portable non-
invasive flow meters are extremely valuable. In a
number of manufacturing processes, the product
moisture content is a key production parameter
and held within strict limits, in these
circumstances water flows can be calculated
from production data.
From these various data sources, a detailed water
balance for the site, production line or product
can be compiled. This is often represented in the
form of a Sankey diagram (reference Figure 3)
which gives an immediate picture of the relative
sizes of the various water inputs and outputs,
highlighting the priority areas.

by Lucideon 6


Figure 3. Sankey Diagram of the Water Balance in Ceramics Manufacturing

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE OF WATER
FOOTPRINTING
Lucideon has calculated several water footprints
for brick and ceramic manufacturers. The
quarried raw materials used by these
manufacturers frequently possess varied
moisture contents upon delivery, thus
representing a major water input. Water is
integral to most ceramic manufacturing
processes where the clay body is moulded or
shaped. These operations only operate efficiently
if the clay body has a predictable and consistent
plasticity, which is directly related to water
content of the body; moisture content is a key
production parameter, and is usually closely
monitored and controlled.
Some businesses have already realised the
importance of water in their manufacturing
processes: Johnson Tiles have invested in a
recycling and collection system, saving the
company approximately 30,000m
3
of water per
annum. In general, brick manufacturers do not
require high quality mains water for their
manufacturing processes; efforts are made to
substitute this with water drawn from their
quarrying operations.
Although each manufacturing site is different in
terms of their raw materials, processes, products
and the water use, a number of general
observations can be made:
- Billing is frequently confusing; water
companies take infrequent meter readings and
estimate the majority of bills. In many cases,
businesses pay bills without checking them
against actual meter readings.
- Compared to energy and raw materials, water
is relatively low cost, however the full picture
does reveal some hidden and less obvious
costs associated with water. Trade effluent
charges can be higher on a per m
3
basis than
the cost of mains water and where there are
losses due to evaporation in a drying or firing
operation, there is an associated energy cost.
- Data collection and analysis is relatively poor,
even where meters are read on a regular basis,
data is often not analysed. In these situations,
historic data was used to calculate the
monthly specific water consumption in terms
of m
3
per tonne. Performance was highly
variable; at one site the worst monthly
performance was 60% greater than the best
without any obvious explanation. This
indicates a lack of control and the potential for
significant savings through tighter
management.
- Where there are multiple products and unit
operations, it is generally more difficult to
accurately compile a water balance. In some
cases less than 50% of the site water
consumption could be accounted for. In these

by Lucideon 7
situations, without adequate sub-metering it
will be very difficult to implement a successful
water management programme.
Although these observations are derived from
brick and ceramic manufacturers, the lessons
learnt can be applied to many other
manufacturing sectors.
CONCLUSIONS
The recent Government white paper Water for
Life has highlighted the growing importance of
water as a sustainability issue for business; the
current perception that water is a cheap and
almost limitless resource will have to change.
Increasing demands due to population growth,
mounting concerns around the health of river
eco-systems and the impacts of climate change
will all put pressure on our water supplies.
Investment in a new water infrastructure will
inevitably feed through into higher prices for
consumers of mains water, along with future
restrictions associated with abstraction licenses.
In many respects, the concerns around water are
following those around carbon. All businesses
are aware of how carbon has leapt up the
corporate agenda in the past decade; it is
apparent there will be strong drivers to reduce
future water demand.
Water footprinting is an ideal tool to:
- Understand how water is used in a business
- Gain an insight into how a water reduction
strategy can be developed.
Currently there is no standard methodology for
water footprinting; however an ISO standard is
under development. Although this is likely to be a
very comprehensive approach to developing a
cradle to grave footprint, practical experience
has shown that at present most manufacturing
businesses will struggle with this approach due to
a lack of available data. Initially, a more pragmatic
approach can be adopted; developing a water
footprint that is restricted to a defined factory
boundary, and expressing water consumption in
terms of litres per unit of output. This will
highlight the issue and provide a baseline for
more detailed investigation, and ultimately
identification of water saving opportunities.
REFERENCES
i
Centre for Environmental Systems Research
http://www.usf.uni-
kassel.de/cesr/index.php?option=com_project&t
ask=view_detail&agid=39&lang=en
ii
Water for Life, Defra, Dec 2011
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/water/legis
lation/whitepaper
iii
The case for change current and future water
availability, Environment Agency
http://publications.environment-
agency.gov.uk/PDF/GEHO1111BVEP-E-E.pdf
iv
France faces nuclear power crisis, The
Guardian, Aug 2003
www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/aug/13/france.i
nternationalnews?INTCMP=SRCH
v
BRE Global Ltd
www.bre.co.uk/greenguide
vi
British Precast
http://www.britishprecast.org/sustainableprecast
/downloads/downloads.php









by Lucideon

ABOUT LUCIDEON

Lucideon is a leading international provider of
materials development, testing and assurance.
Through its offices and laboratories in the UK, US
and the Far East, Lucideon provides materials
and assurance expertise to clients in a wide range
of sectors, including healthcare, construction,
ceramics and power engineering.
The company aims to improve the competitive
advantage and profitability of its clients by
providing them with the expertise, accurate
results and objective, innovative thinking that
they need to optimise their materials, products,
processes, systems and businesses.