What indices or data sets do you use to benchmark water footprint or sustainability progress of countries and companies?

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Joyce Coffee, who's leading the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, and a team of sustainability experts around the globe detailed the Business Case for Responsible Corporate Adaptation, which shows how the ND-GAIN has been applied to inform corporate decisions and operations.

The ND-GAIN data is open source, and aiding business in managing and minimizing the risk of global operations.

I've come across a number of different benchmarks and open data resources in the industry:

CDP Water Questionnaire and Disclosure: https://www.cdp.net/en-US/Respond/Pages/CDP-Water-Disclosure.aspx

Open Water Data Initiative, http://acwi.gov/spatial/owdi/

Nalco's Water Risk Monetizer, https://tool.waterriskmonetizer.com/login.htm

Future Fit Business Benchmark (in use by International Society of Sustainability Professionals): http://futurefitbusiness.org

QUESTION FOR COMMUNITY: What other benchmarks or questionnaires should be on this list, and what are you using to track enterprise progress against goals? Lastly, what are the three most important attributes of an industry benchmark or index?

Thanks in advance for your input!


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2 Answers

  1. If the total cost of water was charged for water use, the price would be high enough to justify alternate water systems. Since water is subsidized and under priced, alternate water water systems have no "ROI". Skewed baselines make skewed judgment even when impecable logic and accounting are applied. So, "facts" as they are, or the selling price of water is what is skewed. As a result, alternate water systems are screwed. In the end, the water industry is cheated effective systems being applied.

    Please challenge me on my "logic" and or "facts" on this I am open to more "facts" .

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks for chiming in Greg... You hit on an issue that's changing thanks to the work of firms like Trucost and CDP. In fact, a comment shared by Trucost in last week's State of Green Business Report captured the current issue perfectly: When the disappearance of a commodity means the disappearance of all of your revenues, its perceived value increases substantially.
      We are in the process of making the case for water investment based on the cost of overlooking such investments (Flint, California), and the benefits accrued to firms who are making such investments today:
      Plumbing Manufacturer International shows water savings of 20-30% when WaterSense solutions replace existing showerheads and toilets.
      Auto manufacturers who were able to reduce their water use in the painting process by 30% were able to keep costs the same while water prices rose.
      A global marketer who reengineered its direct mail program to leverage Google's drive and targeted adwords program has increased its efficiency while cutting 25 tonnes of print production and requisite water (for paper). They also saw a 30% cost savings.
      GreenBiz is a great source for a number of these case studies... They're not easy to come by, but today's tech allows us to measure and manage what we couldn't previously monitor, so more case studies should be forthcoming!

  2. Maybe this is useful:

    Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2014) Water footprint benchmarks for crop production: A first global assessment, Ecological Indicators, 46: 214-223.
    waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Mekonnen-Hoekstra-2014-WF-benchmarks_1.pdf

    And some info related to water footprint in the industry:

    Hoekstra, A.Y. (2015) The water footprint of industry, In: Klemeš, J.J. (ed.) Assessing and measuring environmental impact and sustainability, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK, pp. 221-254. [request copy]

    1 Comment

    1. Thank you so much for this very helpful and current report from Twente, Markus! Just learned from someone else that, while there are water footprints, the quality of water (polluted and/or unstructured) vs. structured (near pure) can have a significant impact on the water required for the same yield. Not sure how this will impact benchmarks, but it's great motivation to clean up polluted waterways!