I’m taking the No Impact Experiment for the first week of January. Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, Day 4: Food, and Day 5: Energy.
After having such a proud moment over my electric bill, I kind of wish I also had a water bill. Unfortunately, water’s included in my rent — so I’m unable to tell how much water I actually use.
But for yesterday’s No Impact Experiment topic — Water: Soak up the personal benefits of using less water — I calculated my water footprint at Waterfootprint.org. My score: 1172 cubic meter per year — compared to 2483 for the average American.
Twice as water-efficient is good, but since my electricity use was a tenth that of the average American, I was a bit disappointed. But after closer examination, I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem is not me, but the calculator.
Why? Waterfootprint.org’s calculator has some quirks — that go beyond asking for the weight of your food in kilograms, not pounds. The calculator splits your water footprint into three areas — food, domestic (water use inside the home), and industrial (everything else). Now, the rough food calculation has some imperfections, since the number’s calculated simply by asking me for the amount of each type of food eaten without considering the fact that my organic, mostly local food may have a lower water footprint. The domestic water footprint is similarly rough.
But the industrial number is roughest of all, simply giving you a figure based entirely on the money you spent in a year! What if I’d spent a lot of my money on water-saving gadgets and on donations to water charities? (I didn’t, but you get my point)
Still, the water footprint calculator’s a good educational tool that reminds people there’s a water cost not only to the water used in the home, but to the food they eat and the things they buy. What is your water footprint?
Update, 1/10/11: Don’t miss the rest of the No Impact Experiment series! Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, Day 4: Food, Day 5: Energy, Day 6: Water and Day 7: Give back.
You could ask your landlord for the usage number for your building and divide by the number of units. This would be a rough number but give you a start. If you’re in a smaller complex you could work with the neighbors to try to reduce overall useage.
Comment by Eric Seberg — January 9, 2011 @ 11:00 am
What you eat weight more in average than what you buy (70% against 20%).
Assessing the water content of an industrial product is really complex.
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Check your water footprint on iPhone with Water Aflamed application
Comment by Bladerunner — January 10, 2011 @ 11:48 am
Of all of the footprints, the water footprint is probably the most complicated because not all water is the same: water that comes to a field as rain (e.g., for corn in Iowa) is far different from water that is delivered to a field via canals and pipe (e.g., for irrigated crops in California), which is far different from treated municipal water that is used in industrial processes or for food processing.
To get the water footprint right, we probably need a multi-level analysis, one that considers the source of the water. Over at GreenBiz Marc Gunther examines one method:
Like a lot of these footprints, it’s a valuable exercise that leads to a lot more questions. For example, what is the potential for saving water in each segment of use? e.g., how much could your food producers save by going to drip irrigation, or how much could industrial producers save by reusing some of the water in their processes.
Another footprint that might be interesting to see would be the water pollution footprint, i.e., how do our activities (driving, buying stuff, using plastic bags, taking the bus, eating various foods) cause water pollution via petroleum run-off, plastic waste going to the garbage patch, etc. Not an easy calculation!
Marc´s last blog ..The Yogurt Routine
Comment by Marc — January 15, 2011 @ 10:21 am