Water Footprint

How to report water consumption during the life cycle of an organization's product, service, or activities

Water footprintThe Water Footprint (WFP) shows the direct and indirect water consumption attributable to a product/service throughout the life cycle (LCA) or to the production activity of an organisation. WFP covers the overall water consumption of all stages of the life of the product/service (or an organisation's activity) depending on the scope of the WFP study.

The reporting of water consumption, verified by RINA in compliance with the ISO 14046 standard, allows to:

- Continuously monitor the water consumption associated with a product/service or the activity of an organisation
- Identify possible improvement strategies, determining the most critical elements according to the life cycle
- Enhance the company's attention to environmental issues
- Benefit from a more transparent relationship with customers.

Why choose RINA?

RINA has gained many years of experience in verifying LCA analyses, which are the basis of the Water Footprint, the Carbon Footprint (CFP, for which RINA is accredited ISO 17029) and the Environmental Product Declarations (EPD, for which RINA has been accredited since 2004).

Verification procedure

The process consists of the following phases: 

- Contract opening with customer: acceptance of the offer made following receipt of the informative questionnaire
- Document verification: strategic and risk analysis, WFP study assessment, data collection and calculation methodologies
- Verification activities: on-site verification of the data acquisition and modelling of the calculations carried out with the software used for the analysis
- Reporting: preparation of the verification report and the draft verification opinion
- Independent technical review of the verification activities carried out.

Our experts answer to the most frequently questions

Reporting boundaries are terms used in relation to the calculation of the water footprint and define to what extent in the life cycle of a product or organisation water consumption for calculation purposes is considered. Reporting boundaries may vary depending on the type of water footprint analysis being performed.
Possible reporting boundaries are: from cradle to grave in case of complete water footprint, from cradle to gate in case of partial water footprint or from gate to gate applicable in case of organisation water footprint. 

- From Cradle to Grave: in a complete water footprint analysis, all water consumption related to a product or activity is considered, from the acquisition of raw materials (cradle) to the disposal of the product or the end of the activity (grave). 

- From Cradle to Gate: in a partial water footprint analysis, water consumption is considered only to the point where the product is ready to be distributed or used (gate). This boundary is often used to evaluate a product’s water footprint during production, but does not include water consumption during use or disposal.

-  From Gate to Gate: applies mainly to organisations. In an organisation water footprint analysis, only water consumption directly related to organisation-specific activities, such as production or service operations, are considered.
The ISO 14046 standard does not require the use of pre-defined indicators, but these must be chosen according to the objective established by the organisation for the preparation of the study.

Regulatory focus

In a global context in which water is becoming an increasingly precious primary asset, calculating the Water Footprint (according to the international standard ISO 14046: 2014 - Environmental management - Water footprint - Principles, requirements and guidelines) is one of the main monitoring objectives of companies also in relation to the growing sensitivity to the problem of climate change.

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