Water Footprints: Why Business Is Shunning the Wet Look

Intense global focus on greenhouse gases and global warming has made most organisations conscious of the need to calculate carbon footprints. But as environmental pressures grow, further counting is required. To conserve "the world's most precious resource", organisations and individuals now must understand the water footprint of products or processes. Predictions of a worldwide water crisis have left scientists arguing over the right way to measure water use, while large progressive organisations have developed their own ad hoc approaches. With one international authority claiming it takes 140 litres of water to make a cup of coffee, it's certainly not time to relax.