water footprint, definition of

A water footprint is an indicator of the amount of fresh water used by an organization, individual or product.

Modeled on the concept of carbon foot-printing, water footprints are measured in terms of the volume of water that is consumed over a given period of time.

As with carbon footprints they can either be used narrowly to calculate the amount of water used by an individual company or building, or extended to cover the amount of water used through the entire supply chain of an organization or lifetime of a product.

Some environmental groups are campaigning for water footprints to be reported by all businesses.

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