There’s water in everything around you. Some of it you can see, but most of it is hidden. This ‘embedded” or “virtual water” is used to grow the food you eat, manufacture the clothes you wear, and everything from cellphones to televisions to cars.
A water footprint is a quantitative indicator of both the water required to produce these goods and the water pollution that results. The water footprint for a hamburger, for example, considers not only where but how a cow is raised, which includes not only the way its feed is grown but also how the waste produced by the animals is treated. It considers the water required at every step in the supply chain, including consumers, which makes water footprint powerful tools that provide greater transparency into how things are made.
The challenge, however, is that most people don’t attach a cost or value to water. In sub-Saharan Africa or the Southwest US or Northern China, people know the meaning of water scarcity because they experience it firsthand. That isn’t the same in most of the industrial world, where water is ubiquitous. Turn on the tap and water comes out. Most people have never witnessed water scarcity, or even worse, couldn’t tell you the name of the watershed where they live or where their water comes from. If people are so disconnected from the story of their own water, how can they be made to realize the importance of water footprints and the information they represent?
To learn more visit www.thelexicon.org
A production of the Lexicon of Sustainability
Producer - Laura Howard-Gayeton
Writer/Director - Douglas Gayeton
Editor/Animator - Pier Giorgio Provenzano