Water Footprint Conference: Tools Needed

Arjen Hoekstra (Twente University, The Netherlands) has indicated that for 1kg of refined sugar, 1500l of water is needed in the whole process: growing the sugar canes and the production.

Ulrike Ebert (Coca-Cola), stated that the water footprint is essential for the beverage business, for retail and image perspective. 'Water is a key resource for us', she stated. 'You have to go into the supply chain. There is already much going on in agriculture that you can wrap up. However, the question is the methodology to calculate the reduction of the impact. And there are more aspects to water use as well. Policy, anti-poverty considerations, and the uncertainty what really is affecting climate change.'
Ian Walsh (Cadbury) stresses this a bit: 'the numbers only may exaggerate and mean not so much. For example, we grow cocoa beans in Ghana where it rains a lot. So we have a high water footprint without actually adding ourselves. If we want to reduce it and close the fields down, the local economy goes bust. What do we want?'
Andy Wales of SAB Miller agrees with this point of view that water is complex. 'We need to look at strategic, analytic and management level. Because most actual decisions about water use are made locally. We are thinking of starting at a local level and scale up.'
Dave Challis of Kimberly Clark sees water as a part of life cycle management, to be discussed with the supply chain. 'We are not in favour of labeling on the packages as the numbers don't mean much for people and the purpose of them is not clear for consumers.'
'Water is business', states Claus Conzelmann of Nestlé. 'Raw materials come from agriculture in the end and raw materials mean business. Therefore, water footprinting is a part of environmental footprinting. We have to look at the matter in a more holistic way.'
John Temple of Unilever thinks that consumers do not have a sense of water stress. 'We have intensively studied consumer behaviour and this gives us tools to work at the use of our products: do people leave the tap on when cleaning their teeth? Do they have long showers? Would they accept a shampoo that does not require water?' Unilever needs a flexible suppy chain to realise further improvements.

Commodity
In the afternoon forum, these issues returned as well. Quite some companies consider their raw materials as a commoditiy and do not actually know where they are coming from. Henrik Lampa (Hennes & Maurits): 'The cotton fields are 6 to 7 steps into the supply chain, we really should have to map them and relate them to water scarcity. Then we need to look into the resources and make that part of the supply more efficient.' A comparable issue is there with Tate and Lyle as Simon Houghton-Dodd tells. But he also sees a difference in the chain upwards: 'As we receive quite some questionnaires from clients for their corporate responsibility management, a few years ago this was mainly on the manufacturing: is the building well equipped and clean. Now 80% of the questions is about the sustainability side, and they are getting a wider perspective.'
Also, Simon points at the fact that granulated sugar and caster sugar have different water footprints. Not only because they are different but they are used in a different way. 'We should take into account the amount of water is needed to bake a cake as well. But again: how do you communicate this complexity to the consumer?'

Chemical Water Footprint
Sylvain Lhote (Borealis) explained that for the production of plastic pellets, the impact of water is underestimated. Creating an ecological footprint for their plants, Borealis learned that there is a water stress in Sweden, Belgium and the UAE. In Sweden especially because of the interference with other companies that also use water. 'And how do we make a water footprint calculation if we use other materials like natural gas or nafta for our production because they simply may be cheaper?'

Further on, in a discussion the question of a 'next step' was raised. In China, a lot of (food) products come from the north, which is relatively poor in water, to be further treated and consumed in the south. So there was a virtual water flow going up north. The first conclusion was to stop bringing water to the north for growing the products and bring the production of food down south. The Chinese were not in favour of this as this should have a severe impact on the population in the north of China.

And that is one of the interim results – the calculation of the corporate water footprint is not to make in a few days. Arjen Hoekstra expected to need several years to work on a good system that facilitates comparison, calculations and further actions.