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Whats Your Water Footprint?
Water is different than oil in the respect that we can not live without it. Oil can and hopefully soon will be replaced with alternatives. There is no alternative for water. So we must implement conservation efforts in every aspect of daily life and business. Many businesses recognize that water is a commodity and are implementing drastic conservation efforts to reduce need and in turn costs. As individuals we can reduce water usage by 50% by doing simple things like repairing leaky toilets and installing/replacing aerators on sinks. The water footprint calculator is the same idea as the carbon footprint calculator. Designed to show an individual or business their water usage compared to your peers. You will likely get varied results from the 4 calculators listed below as all water footprint calculators are not created equal. Regardless this is a great way to take stock of your water usage and raise awareness to reduce waste. Take a look at the calculators below to see where you stand and start conserving water today! The One Minute Water Calculator h2O Conserve Institute of Water Education The Global Water Tool 26 comments to Whats Your Water Footprint? |
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Recently all the talk has been about 
im below average- it helps not having a yard, car, or dishwasher!! I still feel like i use a lot of water. This is scary, if there is no alternative then we are basically trying to delay the indefinite. is this true?
Fresh water is a necessity for much of the life on earth. That makes it so much more important than the oil we use to power our vehicles and heat our homes. We must shift focus away from using oil and its polluting properties by using renewable clean forms of energy. If we eliminate the pollution and the waste from our daily lives there will be plenty of clean water for generation to come. But we must start now and act aggressively!
I question the value of a water calculator that doesn’t ask how much meat a person eats. A vegetarian diet requires thousands of gallons less water to sustain than a meat-eating diet. Whether you personally want to give up meat or not, you should still be willing to educate the public on the wastefulness of meat production and the harm it causes to the environment.
Hi
I work here at water.ca this is a timely article!
good on you folks for doing it. there are many many issues between canada and the u.s and state to state province to province about water. bottom line we need the stuff. conservation is boring to talk about and critical to the future of our species. go obama we wish you luck in the turn around and look forward to working with our american brothers and sisters to get through the coming global crisis.
sincerely
bob brouse
water.ca
I agree that a water calculator with an option of a meat or vegetarian diet would be more accurate. But I also believe as is the water calculator is a valuable education tool to raise awareness of the need to conserve water.
Shane…there is a question that asks if you are vegetarian or not.
I live in a single family dwelling and often feel guility for the amount of water it takes to live this life style. I would like to see rooftop water collection in addition to the use of gray water for plants. When we replace appliance even with greater expense we need to buy models that use less water to begin with. Take a 5 minute shower instead of 20 min. Don’t run the water needlessly at the kitchen or bathroom sink. We will have to go to food producing plants only, no green grass for the sake of green grass. I am so glad that this conversation is happening because water is the new oil. If we are not careful the world will fight over water the same way they have fought over oil. Teach your children from the time they are babies not to waste water.
Pat…not sure that it was a question directed at me but at the public in general. I myself am not a vegetarian…although I have a vegetarian influenced diet that occasionally includes meat. I could be persuaded;-)
Almost 1200 gal per DAY??? That’s effing absurd (obscene). Admittedly I’m definitely weird (but not dirty), yet I ‘consume’ less than 800 gal per YEAR (probably less than 700) and that includes two dogs and a cat. (I can brush my teeth with less 1 gal/month. Composting toilet, rain-fed garden, paper plates/cups, sponge bathes, etc.) It would take 550 folks such as myself just to match the CONsumption of a single ‘average’ Americant. Obscene! Oh well … and this too shall pass.
I agree with Dr Doom: The projections are “obscene” - UNLESS you factor in lots of other “expected” uses. These calculators aren’t just calculating what you’ll see on your own water bill but your share from food, and that ever-impossible to properly calculate: your “consumer purchases.”
My water bill usage is about 10 gal / day - VERY low by USA standards. The calculators vary a lot for me, one of which says I use 859 gallons a day, and another says 300.88 per day. …I think these things are useful for awareness ONLY and are not seriously useful. The questions asked and the assumptions behind them are VERY “coarse grained.”
More sophisticated calculators take more time to answer and at the same time, the ones I’ve taken have their own issues - such as the one from the Netherlands which expects us to answer questions on our weekly consumption of food measured in kilograms! …If I could even get a good estimate of _that_ averaged out well over a year’s consumption I’d be doing _very_ well!
The thing, though, that hacks me is the presumption of consumerism. Frankly, I don’t buy diddley if it has excessive packaging, and even then, I’m a “non-consumerist.” If I don’t eat it or wear it, odds are I don’t own it or buy it, with very few exceptions. Even then, I _only_ buy long term durable goods as opposed to use-once or short lifespan versions - whenever there’s a choice. AND, I have never owned - and will likely _never_ own a new car, and so the formulaic idea that because I have a car I have therefore used x water through its manufacture or that of its parts, just plain doesn’t work for me; the manufacturing costs to our planet of it and its spare parts were LONG ago fully written off the books. In fact, so much so - we’re talking 50 years here - the formula should owe me _back_ some resources! -smile- (And before you get smart; My 51 year old car beats the NEW, most restrictive CAFE standard that _will_ be in effect in, what is it? 2020? Har! Plus, I only burned 120 gallons last year - you? My commute is a flight of stairs!)
So… Be aware what you use. Be aware what you use that’s beyond your own water bill - and of course, do what you can to reduce your footprint that’s within your ability. But don’t take these water calculators too seriously - good numbers, they do not (yet) produce.
And, BTW, I’m a scientist working in Earth Science for the last 14 years…
RTIII
Good work! Thank you!
I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my site?
Of course, I will add backlink?
Regards, Your Reader
I live in Pennsylvania between two rivers. There is no need for me to conserve water.
I agree that the calculator does not show the full extent of our water useage. However, what a great way to get the attention of the general public. Good for you that you have been so conscience for such a long time. Those of us who are not part of the scientific community and have unfortunately been going through life with a lack of awareness are grateful for just this kind of article, which bring attention to the crisis. Thank You for your article!
I Love the idea of a water footprint.We can easily save a ton of water by just watching our daily use. We are working on the http://www.NoMoreGeysers.com project and in stopping an unwanted broken sprinkler head stops almost a 100 gallon waste of water for a normal 10 minute cycle.
Shane Peterson if you are coining this phrase we want to use it will reference you….
http://www.NoMoreGeysersBlog.com
Shane,
Thanks for posting this. Do we know who coined the phrase. WATER FOOTPRINT? We’ll see if we can attend some of these events.
Great Stuff.. http://www.NoMoreGeysersBlog.com
Great article! I’m loving your website.
Start reigning ourselves in terms of consumption seems a winner
David…great project you are working on! Water conservation will be big news for years to come. Please use my post and reference the article with a link back to me. Note my name is spelled Petersen and the original post can be found on TheGreenNW Good luck with the great idea!
Chris…I cant take credit for coining the phrase “water footprint”. The Water Footprint Network is considered the grandfather of water calculators. Glad you liked the article!
Check out this site - http://www.SaveWaterAmerica.com - it talks about 100 million toilets in the US that waste 2 gallons of fresh drinking water with EVERY FLUSH!
your average lawn takes 50 gallons of water per square foot per year. For us in So Cal, about half of all water use is for lawns. Talk about insanity! We at http://www.omegaturf.com have saved millions of gallons of water by installing synthetic turf in residential and commercial locations. Yep, fake grass. Green lawn - no water. American made. Also, it takes 11 wH per gallon to deliver water to SoCal, so saving water saves power. Your water footprint is part of your carbon footprint too.
Conserving resources just hasnt been ingrained in our society. We have lived in a culture of waste since the industrial revolution. The time has come to conserve and live lightly.
hello every one iven though at only 14 i can see the mess that we have made on scociety its definalty a mess that we have made an need to fix stright away by cutting admitions an saing our precious water because as an young kid i dont want to be growing up in a world with out the resources i need.
Well said Jessica! Thanks for taking responsibility. The adults of the world need to take the steps needed to preserve our resources for future generations. Spread the word….education is the key!
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Nice information, many thanks to the author. It really is incomprehensible if you ask me now, playing with general, the usefulness and significance has me overwhelmed. Thank you and good luck!