Did you know that it takes 25 bathtubs of water to produce enough cotton for one t-shirt (New Scientists 2008) and that you need 2000 litres of water to grow, dye and process the cotton for a single pair of stonewashed jeans? (Green Data Centre 2009) And did you know that 2.6 billion people in the world have no reliable access to clean water (Fairhomes 2008)? Well, now you do.

 

I estimate that the water agenda will continue to gain momentum after the World Water Day (22nd March), and businesses will no longer be able to ignore the issues. European legislation is changing to achieve the Water Framework Directive’s aim to have good or high quality water in the whole European Union by 2015. But is it enough for a business to simply comply with regulations?

The term “water footprint” has already entered the corporate vocabulary (Environmental Leader 2009) and if this follows the same trend as the carbon footprint – a term 96% of UK adults are already aware of (Environmental Leader 2009), then the next big consumer drive could be for companies to address their water use. According to Waterwise, the average person in the UK directly uses about 150 litres of water per day, but behind this direct use there is an indirect use, which is about 23 times higher - 3400 litres per day. To reduce this indirect usage, consumers will be calling on businesses to make changes to their products.

There is a tangible opportunity for businesses that create effective communications around their water use to stand out in a crowded market. 79% of consumers would prefer to buy from companies trying to reduce their environmental impact, which includes water! (Havas Study 2008). So which companies are already satisfying these consumers?

Persil’s famous Small but Mighty fabric softener uses 50% less water and saved 4.1 million litres of water in 2007 – that’s nearly enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool twice! Going that little step further, Coca Cola has expressed its goal ‘to return to communities and to nature an amount of water equivalent to what [it uses] in all of [its] beverages and production’ through a Water Stewardship programme.

But for many products, it is not the raw materials, manufacturing or packaging that causes such a large water impact. Unilever, owner of 400 brands, found that over 80% of the water footprint of home and personal care products was due to their end use. How consumers use these products has a huge impact on the water footprint, and as such, there is an opportunity for brand owners like Unilever to educate consumers about reducing water use. SIGG, the bottle manufacturer, is boldly trying to address this problem by changing consumer behaviour through using its non-plastic water bottles to promote drinking tap water.

According to Stuart Orr, WWF’s Water Expert, ‘it will be better for business to be seen making a positive contribution to public policy processes over water in a climate of water shortages rather than as a powerful player interested mainly in grabbing or defending its share of water’ (WWF 2009). So which companies will listen to this advice and take the lead in 2009/2010?