ISO Publishes New Water Footprint Standard

ISO 14046:2014

ISO 14046:2014 specifies principles, requirements and guidelines related to water footprint assessment of products, processes and organizations based on life cycle assessment (LCA).

ISO 14046:2014 provides principles, requirements and guidelines for conducting and reporting a water footprint assessment as a stand-alone assessment, or as part of a more comprehensive environmental assessment.

Only air and soil emissions that impact water quality are included in the assessment, and not all air and soil emissions are included.

The result of a water footprint assessment is a single value or a profile of impact indicator results.

Whereas reporting is within the scope of ISO 14046:2014, communication of water footprint results, for example in the form of labels or declarations, is outside the scope of ISO 14046:2014.

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ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

Introduction

Water is an essential natural resource. The issue of water and its management has become increasingly central to the global debate on sustainable development. This interest has been driven by growing water demand, increasing water scarcity in many areas and/or degradation of water quality. This drives the need for a better understanding of water related impacts as a basis for improved water management at local, regional, national and global levels. It is therefore desirable to have appropriate assessment techniques that can be used in an internationally consistent manner. One of the techniques being developed for this purpose is the water footprint assessment. There is a growing demand for assessing and reporting water footprints. Various methodologies exist to do so and currently these methodologies emphasise different aspects related to water. There is therefore a need to ensure consistency in assessing and reporting water footprints. This International Standard is expected to benefit organizations, governments and other interested parties worldwide by providing transparency, consistency, reproducibility and credibility for assessing and reporting the water footprint of products, processes or organizations. See Full ReportSource: ISO.org Here's The Bitly Link to Include In Your Share:http://bit.ly/1zCkpfh

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Taxonomy

• Research
• Water Resources