I want to share with my dear Eco-Gen friends my experience of a recent community lecture that I attended. It was EEG?s 10^th Community lecture 2013 on the 26-Nov titled, ?Knowing your corporate water footprint.?  This was given by Mrs. Roxana who works for the worldwide renowned company, ?Liquid of Life?.

What is the corporate water footprint? It is the internal or external, Direct or indirect consumption of water by businesses.

The first criteria to reduce the water footprint is awareness. Sunlight laundry, a well-known laundry in the UK, realized what they were doing, they realized the harm that they were causing to the environment and henceforth they adapted drastic measures which saved up to 75% water resulting in saving almost 1 billion liters per annum. Accor Hotels, Little Rock, Kansas, modified their food production supply chain which resulted in the indirect saving of water.

Shocking Water facts

0.5 KG of plastic takes 91 liters of water!

1 pair of jeans takes???.

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Wait for it..

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10,855 liter of water! Whew!

1 computer takes 25 K liters, which is understandable.

1 cup of coffee takes 140 liters of water!

Nestle, California invested in machines that could separate the plp completely from the crop not leaving any access water. Their water wastage per 100 grams of pulp became from 60:1 ton 3:1!!

If companies do not know their water footprint, there are a number of risks that can occur:

Physical Risk

Companies may face increasing freshwater shortage and their supply chain and own operations.

Reputational Risk

A good example of this is Coca Cola, who in 2003, did not get their license renewal only because of the fact that they were not saving water efficiently enough!! That led to a huge drop n reputation.

Regulatory Risk

Government interference and regulation in the area of water use will undoubtedly increase twofold if water consumption is not controlled.

Financial Risk

Risks may translate into increased cost and reduced revenues. Making the right purchasing/supplier decisions is going to be crucial.

In a nutshell, it was a wholesome lecture and I learnt a lot.