Maybe it’s just the news we’re watching, but it does seem like carbon footprints, sustainable resourcing, and being eco-friendly are making their way into everyday life. And while, Wal-Mart and Marks & Spencer are making news this week, we’d like to see more attention paid to water footprints. Water is simply not fully accounted for in the same way carbon is.

For example, it takes water to generate energy. Lots of water. After agricultural use, power plants are the second largest water consumer in the country. Of course, not all of it is lost, as in the case of a hydro-power plant where the water continues downstream.

GreenBiz.com reported from last week’s Corporate Water Scarcity Risks and Footprints conference in San Francisco about the widely varying quantities of water needed to produce a kilowatt hour of electricity. Vice President of Engineering at CH2M Hill, Jan Dell, put it this way, “Not all electricity is water equal.”

Here’s how it breaks down according to the article:

• Coal uses 520 gallons of water to produce one megawatt for an hour.
• Carbon and capture coal needs 990 gallons of water for that same megawatt.
• A photovoltaic solar panel uses 30 gallons of water.
• Power from wind only requires one gallon per megawatt hour.

Most energy companies are not even tracking their water footprint but we expect that to change as climate change, pollution, and population continue to make greater demands on the planet’s 2.5 percent stash of fresh water.

Cotton accounts for 40 percent of all textile products made each year and carries a heavy water footprint. It’s a fiber we haven’t yet been able to replace. There’s quite a bit of talk about organic cotton, but that’s far from being widely available, much less affordable. And the fact is, organic cotton still uses quite a bit of water for growing and just as much water as conventional cotton for production.

We thought it was worthwhile to take a look at just how much water it takes to produce this season’s fashionable jeans and the rest of the cotton textiles consumed each year.

The best study on the water footprint of cotton consumption we’ve found was conducted in 2005 by the UNESCO Institute for Water Education [download the report as a pdf]. The researchers take a look at the entire lifecycle of cotton and make very interesting points. We wanted to share some of them with you:

1. The Aral Sea lost 80 percent of it’s volume due to water being diverted for cotton upstream.
2. Nearly 70 percent of the all cotton is grown in China (25 percent), USA (17.8 percent), India (10.2 percent), Pakistan (9.5 percent), and Uzbekistan (6.1 percent).
3. Cotton crops in China rely completely on irrigation–severely depleting and polluting fresh water supplies.
4. Cotton is planted on 2.4 percent of the planet’s arable land, but accounts for 24 percent of all insecticides and 11 percent of global pesticides.
5. While 60 percent of the nitrogen applied to cotton fields is removed via harvested seed cotton, 40 percent of it remains behind, mostly in the local fresh water supply.
6. 2.6 percent of the global water footprint is used to grow and process cotton each year.
7. 44 percent of the water used for growing and processing cotton is exported.

What does this all mean to you and me? Well, it means that, with the movement of the cotton around the world, the people who bear the brunt of the water consumption are not benefiting from the products. And you don’t need a study to tell you that the cotton jeans you just bought for $38.95 at the GAP didn’t account for the costs to process the contaminated water downstream or for communities to find new sources of fresh water.

It’s likely that one day we will have to pay for the entire water footprint of that pair of jeans or cotton sheets. We sure hope that by then, we’ve found a sustainable substitute for cotton.

photo credit: Martin Labar / flickr

protecting profits in a water scarce world

Thera N. Kalmijn and R. Paul Herman have come up with the 10 R’s of Water Management and shared their plan with everyone in two parts (part 1 and part 2). You might think this is just overreacting by a couple of treehuggers, but you’d be wrong. They remind us that in 2001, hydroelectric power shortages forced the shutdown of aluminum plant smelters in the Pacific Northwest, resulting in the loss of 8,000 jobs. So, developing and executing on a water management strategy is just plan ole’ fashioned good business.

companies vague on water-scarcity risk, investors say

We know that water management is critical to avoid production interruption. So investors are keen to know the water-related risks faced by specific companies, but that doesn’t mean the information is readily available. A recent report by CERES shows that this information is often “boilerplate and vague.” A Business Week article goes into detail about the report including some of the companies CERES found to be most transparent with their water-risks.

water at the core of climate change

Alister Doyle, an environmental correspondent with Reuters, puts it quite plainly: “The main impact of climate change will be on water supplies.” Unlike many articles we read, Doyle suggests that conflict and disease can be avoided if we just learn from past successful examples of cooperation. Water shortages on the Indus River resulted in cooperation between India and Pakistan and Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia’s set up the Mekong River Commission. With up to 250 million people facing water shortages, it’s good to know that conflict is not guaranteed.

australia’s “top end” too dry to become food bowl

Imagine a place that gets billions of gallons of rain each year, but still can’t sustain agriculture. That place is northern Australia. According to Reuters, farmers and politicians had planned on converting this area into a “food bowl for the world.” However, topography, weather, and climate change mean that much of the water is for not. You see, the rain comes during a few months and the rest of the year is completely dry. During those wet months, most of the water runs quickly out to sea or evaporates quickly when the rain stops. Looks like the Aussies will have to find another way to make the most of this region.

TEDsters answer the question…

The folks with PUR are hanging out with all the big thinkers this week at TED and asking, “If water could talk, what would it say?” And to answer the question, you’ll have to check out PUR’s photo gallery. The extra cool part is you can “like” the album or Tweet it and PUR will donate 10 liters to those in need. Come on, click the link and make clean water happen for someone who would otherwise be without.

Seems like each week there are more and more stories in the media discussing water scarcity and water quality. With so many floating around, we’ll choose a few each Friday that we think everyone should know about. So, here is the first batch of water-related stories from around the world:

crisis in haiti

Of course, we’ve all been glued to the T.V. and computer monitors following  developments in Haiti. We know that even before the 7.0 earthquake, the island nation’s infrastructure was less than ideal. And since 10 days ago, there simply isn’t any infrastructure at all. Water, food, and shelter are continuing to flow in from around the world. According to Yobie Benjamin’s article yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle’s online edition, water tanks are being installed around the city and hundreds of thousands of liters of water have been distributed, but it’s just not enough, nor is it sustainable. Benjamin is looking for the public to help pressure the U.S. government to get a large-scale solar powered water filtration system delivered. If you’ve got connections, the author asks you to reach out to Bobbie Dunphy or tweet him at @yobie.

hazards of growth

Water quality problems are not new for China. This week J. Carl Ganter published a well-documented piece in Circle of Blue called Tracing Kunming, China’s Freshwater Hazards. Ganter examines one of China’s newest projects, the Kunming International Airport. The airport is supposed to be a model for green development. Unfortunately, the construction is wreaking havoc with the local freshwater supply, which is already stressed. Even if you don’t have time to read the entire article, you have to take a look at the photos.

making money from water scarcity

Over at Seeking Alpha, an online community and resource for investors, David Rupprecht wrote an article Electricity and Water: Scarcity Will Drive Prices Upwards. He lays out a suggestion that with both energy and water supplies dwindling, there’s an opportunity to make money by investing in utilities. Do you agree?

water shortages leave crops and patience short

This week Pakistan is reporting that drought and water diversion by India will cause a 40 percent decline in this year’s wheat crop. According to a treaty between the two countries, India is supposed to release 16,000 cubic feet of water per second from the Chenab River. Instead, they have only been releasing less than one-third of that amount which has resulted in the closing of a number of canals and exacerbated the drought. One farmer told The Nation that he thinks future wars will be fought over water.

water-wise baseball

The Minnesota Twins new 40,000-seat Target Field will truly be the greenest ballpark in the country. The new facility has a number of eco-friendly design elements; most important to us is what they are doing about water conservation. The park has an integrated rainwater-recycling system that will collect, filter and disinfect up to 2 million gallons of water each year. You can read more about the Twin’s new home at Treehugger.

Know of another water story we should have posted? Share your link in the comments.

It may not occur to you as you pour that glass of Chardonnay, but it took a lot of water to create that six ounces of deliciousness. For example, in California, it can take 75 gallons of water to grow the grapes for one gallon of wine in the North Coast region and as much as 430 gallons for a vineyard in the Central Valley. And that’s not the end of the water use. Once the grapes are harvested, barrel and tank washing at the winery consume another six gallons of water for every one gallon of wine.

Fortunately, there are forward-thinking wineries already looking for ways to recycle the water. Last week, Jackson Family Wines (you may know their Kendall-Jackson brand) announced they have a new water recycling program that is delivering substantial savings. They found that by recycling, they reduced water consumption 70 percent and saved money on energy too. According to the press release, they expect to save six million gallons of water, 133,000 KWh of electricity, and 73,000 terms of natural gas each year just at their Kendall-Jackson winery.

Jackson Family Wines believes that if just 35 percent of the California wineries adopt these practices, California would save “as much as one billion gallons of water annually.” That’s over 11,000,000 person days of water.

We know we don’t want to see wine prices skyrocket as water scarcity increases; this is just the kind of innovation that can give us wine and water.

photo credit: Jackson Family Wines