Water footprinting at the product brand level: case study and future challenges

Responding to concerns about the unsustainable use of global freshwater resources, especially in agriculture, the concept of water footprinting has recently been developed and applied to a wide range of commodities. In this paper, water footprints were calculated for two complex agrifood products, 250 g Peanut M&M's® and 575 g Dolmio® pasta sauce, in order to evaluate the usefulness of the concept when applied at the product brand level. The process LCA-based methodology took account of blue water appropriated from surface and groundwater resources, green water appropriated from the root zone by plants, and dilution water, being the volume of freshwater needed to assimilate emissions to freshwater. These case studies revealed several issues, namely the lack of correspondence between water footprints and the availability of water for alternative uses in the absence of production, and the difficulty in relating water footprints to potential social and environmental harm. As such, the water footprinting concept requires further development to be useful for promoting sustainable production and consumption.