Innovation Pipeline

You’ve no doubt heard of a carbon footprint. Now people are talking about a water footprint.

But what is a water footprint? It’s the total amount fresh water required for a human activity. It’s a way to measure water consumption.

One of the champions of this concept is Professor John Anthony Allan of King’s College in London and winner of the Stockholm Water Prize. Allan has also used the term “virtual water”: water beyond what’s used for drinking.

A report at World Water Week held in Stockholm this past August revealed some interesting metrics about water use.

*Making one cup of coffee uses 37 gallons of water. That includes everything from growing the beans to brewing.

*A single hamburger has a water footprint of 634 gallons.

*Our global water footprint (the water requirements of all human activity) is estimated at 7.5 trillion cubic meters a year.

*India’s population is 17 percent of the world total but its water footprint is 13 percent. The United States has 4.5 percent of the world population and its footprint is 9 percent of the world’s fresh water.