The Impact of Consumption of Water Resources

You have heard of your ecological footprint and your carbon footprint. Now it is time to look into your water footprint. The water footprint of an individual is the volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods or services consumed by an individual. Everything you consume has a water footprint which has an impact upon your immediate environment and the world beyond.

Calculate Your Water Footprint

There are two calculators you can use to figure out your water footprint. A quick individual water footprint calculator which only asks for your country of residence, gender, meat consumption, and income. This calculator gives you a general idea of your water footprint based upon the average consumption patterns within the country you live. An extended individual water footprint calculator also exists which is more personalized and asks for specifics regarding your food consumption and water usage (indoors and outdoors). Either calculator will give you a water footprint that is measured by cubic meters per year.

The Water Footprint of Everyday Products

Every product you consume has a water footprint. In a typical day, you can use thousands of gallons of water without turning on the faucet. A cup of coffee requires approximately 37 gallons of water to produce. Want eggs with your coffee? One egg uses about 53 gallons of water. Most of the water is used to feed the chicken. A slice of toast will add another 10 gallons of water usage. You will never look at breakfast the same again!

Ways to Reduce your Water Footprint

You could drink tea instead of coffee. One cup of tea only uses about 8 gallons of water to produce. By switching to tea from coffee you save about 29 gallons of water.

Reduce or stop eating meat. One pound of beef costs a whopping 4095 gallons of water to produce. Not a lover of the vegetarian diet? You could switch to chicken which uses approximately 1030 gallons of water per pound of chicken.

Need a drink? Drink beer instead of wine. That saves you approximately 11 gallons of water.

Your Choices