Water Neutrality

Tiering off of the carbon neutrality movement, there is an emerging focus on becoming water neutral. In particular, corporations are realizing that water is a material risk to their business, that their consumers are requesting that they implement environmentally sustainable practices; and that it saves money to save water. In response, corporations such as Coca-Cola have pledged to become "water neutral." Similar to becoming carbon neutral, water neutrality means that you calculate your water footprint, you reduce your footprint through conservation and increased efficiencies as much as you can; and then you offset the remaining impacts through purchasing “water offsets” in the watershed that you are impacting (see www.waterfootprint.org for a more complete description).

American Rivers is beginning to seek relationships with corporations, municipalities and other entities to launch this approach in California to promote water efficiency and security. The first task involves building off the work done by the Water Footprint Network and refining a methodology for determining a water footprint at the following seven scales: 1) household; 2) conference/workshop; 3) development; 4) farm; 5) business; 6) school; and 7) city. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to by the individual, community, workshop, business etc.  Water use is measured in terms of water volumes consumed (evaporated) and/or polluted per unit of time, and are broken up into three elements:

• Blue water footprint is the volume of surface and groundwater used
• Green water footprint is the volume of rainwater consumed
• Grey water footprint is the volume of polluted water, calculated as the volume of water that is required to dilute pollutants to such an extent that the quality of the water remains above state and federal water quality standards.

The second task focuses on applying this water footprint as a pilot using the seven scales mentioned above. Based on initial experiences, we will further refine the water footprint methodology. The third task will involve working with individuals and organizations at these seven scales to reduce their water footprint through water use efficiencies and conservation. The fourth task will involve calculating the remaining offsets required from each of these pilot scales. The impacts of the residual water footprint are offset by making a "reasonable investment" in establishing or supporting projects that aim for the sustainable and equitable use of water. This project will develop criteria for water offset projects and will request that the pilot scale projects make investments in these offsets based on their calculated water footprint.

The outcomes of this project are several: 1) a multiple scale model of water conservation and efficiency in California using the emerging concept of water neutrality; 2) increased water security in California in the face of drought; 3) reduction in water use across a range of organizations; 4) investment in river restoration and water use efficiency through offsets; and 5) quantifiable water savings.