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The water footprint of consumption in the UK

The water footprint of consumption in the UK. Prof. dr. Arjen Hoekstra University of Twente – the Netherlands. www.waterfootprint.org. Overview - Freshwater scarcity & pollution - The water footprint of - our daily commodities - meat - bio-energy - What can we do?.

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The water footprint of consumption in the UK

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  1. The water footprint of consumption in the UK Prof. dr. Arjen Hoekstra University of Twente – the Netherlands www.waterfootprint.org

  2. Overview- Freshwater scarcity & pollution- The water footprint of - our daily commodities - meat - bio-energy- What can we do?

  3. Signs of global water scarcity Strawberries for export Coto Doñana National Park, southern Spain

  4. Signs of global water scarcity Cotton for export Former Aral Sea, Central Asia

  5. Signs of global water scarcity Soybeans, deforestation, Mato Grosso, Brazil It takes 1430 million m3 of water per year to produce soybean in Brazil for export to the UK. (equiv. to more than 0.5 million Olympic swimming pools)

  6. Signs of global water pollution

  7. The total water footprint of a consumer in the UK ►about 3% of your water footprint is at home. 150 litre/day ►about 97% of your water footprint is ‘invisible’, it is related to the products you buy in the supermarket. 3400 litre/day for agricultural products 1100 litre/day for industrial products ►about 60 to 65% of your water footprint lies abroad.

  8. The water footprint of a product Green water footprint • ► volume of rainwater evaporated. Blue water footprint • ► volume of surface or groundwater evaporated. Grey water footprint • ► volume of polluted water.

  9. Global water footprint of UK consumption 62% of the UK water footprint is outside its own borders [Chapagain & Orr, 2008]

  10. [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

  11. [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

  12. [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

  13. 99% of the total refers to water consumed in producing the feed [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

  14. [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

  15. [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

  16. Meat versus vegetarian diet

  17. Meat versus vegetarian diet

  18. Meat versus vegetarian diet

  20. Water footprint: • mostly green • local Grazing systems • Water footprint: • green & blue • local Mixed systems • Water footprint: • green & blue • partly imported Industrial systems

  21. Water footprint of biofuels from different crops [litre/litre] [Gerbens-Leenes, Hoekstra & Van der Meer, 2009]

  22. Water footprint of transport when fueled with bio-energy

  23. What can we do?

  24. Reducing humanity’s water footprint – Companies • Shared terminology & calculation standards • Product transparency • Benchmarking • Quantitative footprint reduction targets • for both own operations and supply chain Global standard Feb. 2011

  25. Reducing humanity’s water footprint – Government • Embed water footprint assessment in national water policy making. • Promote coherence between water and other governmental policies: environmental, agricultural, energy, trade, foreign policy. • Reduce the own organizational water footprint • Promote product transparency

  26. Stop waste of ‘blue water’ Full water recycling in industries Towards precision irrigation

  27. Make better use of ‘green water’ Increase water productivity in rain-fed agriculture

  28. Grey water footprint  zero Towards zero emission Towards organic farming

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