Water Footprint Assessment: Know the Water Behind Your Operations, Products and Supply Chain
Operations · Products · Supply Chain
Water footprint assessment from Consultivo measures the freshwater your organisation, site or product consumes and pollutes, directly and through its supply chain, split into blue, green and grey water. We use the Water Footprint Network method, ISO 14046-aligned assessment, or both.
01 / What you get
Water Footprint Assessment: What You Get
You get a footprint you can read, compare and act on: how much water, of which kind, where, and what to do about it.
In brief: A water footprint measures the freshwater consumed and polluted to run an organisation or make a product, including the water used in its supply chain. Consultivo's water footprint assessment covers organisations, sites and products, using the Water Footprint Network method, ISO 14046-aligned assessment, or both. We also provide independent third-party verification of footprints we did not prepare, and support readiness for certification by other bodies.
A footprint by type of water
Blue, green and grey, direct and indirect, for the period and boundary you choose.
Hotspots and risk
Where the footprint is large or sits in a water-scarce place, in your operations and in your supply chain.
A response plan
Priorities for reduction, reuse and supplier action, targets, and the data you need to disclose.
Who This Is For
- Sustainability and ESG heads of manufacturers whose products carry water-intensive materials
- Food, beverage, textile and agri-based businesses, where most of the water is used in the supply chain
- Procurement and supply chain teams whose customers ask for water data
- Companies preparing water targets or disclosure under GRI 303 or BRSR
Water footprint consulting for companies starts with a clear question: what do you want to know, and for whom?
02 / Why Consultivo
Water Footprint Consulting for Companies You Can Rely On
Two recognised methods, a clear boundary and a plain statement of what each result means.
AA1000 licensed assurance provider
Licence 000-945, with verification available on request.
Approved by IFC and PSCI
Approved ESG consultant of IFC (World Bank Group), and approved auditor of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI), UK.
Two methods, chosen for your purpose
The Water Footprint Network method for volumes and hotspots, ISO 14046-aligned assessment for impact-based results, or both.
From one site to the supply chain
Organisation, facility and product footprints, with direct and indirect water.
A footprint that leads somewhere
Findings connect to your water audit, targets, disclosure and neutrality plan.
Verification kept apart from advice
We verify only footprints we did not prepare.
03 / Overview
What Is a Water Footprint? Water Footprint Assessment Explained
A water footprint is the volume of freshwater consumed and polluted to run an organisation or make a product, measured across the whole supply chain, not only inside your fence. Water footprint assessment is the work of measuring it, judging whether it is sustainable, and deciding what to do. You can apply it to a product, a facility or your entire company. Understanding where and how water is used is a key part of managing the sustainability impacts of your business.
It helps you understand:
- How and where water is used in your operations and your product life cycle
- What risks and opportunities may result from water scarcity, now and in the future
- How to establish and prioritise opportunities, as the basis for decisions
- What information you need for a reliable, extensive database to support a water conservation policy
A water footprint is not the same as water withdrawal. It differs in three ways: it leaves out blue water that is returned to where it came from, it adds green and grey water, and it adds indirect use in the supply chain. It is also a volumetric measure, not a measure of how severe the local impact is. That judgement belongs to the sustainability assessment. Read the Water Footprint Network manual (2011).
Blue, Green and Grey Water Footprint
Surface and groundwater that is consumed: it evaporates, goes into a product, or is not returned to the same catchment in the same period. Water returned to where it came from is not counted.
Rainwater that is consumed, mainly by crops and forests: the evapotranspiration from fields and plantations plus the water in the harvested product. It matters most for agricultural and forestry products.
The freshwater needed to dilute pollution to meet the ambient water quality standard. It is the pollutant load divided by the standard minus the natural concentration. Effluent that meets the standard still has a grey footprint, because it uses up some of the river's capacity.
Direct and Indirect: Why the Supply Chain Matters
The direct footprint is the water used in your own operations. The indirect footprint is the water used by your suppliers to make what you buy. Water has these two scopes only, not the three used for carbon. For most businesses the supply chain footprint is much larger than the operational one, so a footprint can point to different investments than an audit does.
Product, Facility and Corporate Water Footprint
A product water footprint is the sum of the footprints of the process steps that make it, through the supply chain, in cubic metres per tonne or per unit. A facility footprint covers one site, in cubic metres a year. A corporate water footprint is the sum of the footprints of the products the business makes over a stated period. All three are built from the same process building blocks, so the numbers fit together.
04 / Method
Water Footprint Method: Four Phases From Goals to Response
Water footprinting gives a company or facility a clear, structured way to start or strengthen its water sustainability action plan. As an indicator of consumption and pollution, it shows what traditional water statistics and effluent discharge permits do not. It can sit inside integrated water resources management, and it helps identify water risks in your operations and supply chain and build good water stewardship. A full assessment has four phases.
Phase 1: Setting Goals and Scope
We start with the purpose: awareness, finding hotspots or setting reduction targets, because each needs a different level of detail. We then fix the entity (a product, a site or the whole organisation), direct and indirect use, which colours of water to include, and the period of data. We set the boundary and a rule for where to stop in the supply chain: a step is followed back only as far as it contributes significantly to the total. We also choose the level of spatial detail: global averages for awareness, regional or catchment data for hotspots, and site-specific monthly data for targets.
Phase 2: Water Accounting
Process steps are the building blocks. For each step the blue footprint is evaporation, plus water incorporated into the product, plus return flow lost to the catchment or the period. The green footprint is evapotranspiration plus incorporated rainwater. The grey footprint is the pollutant load divided by the difference between the quality standard and the natural concentration. A product footprint adds its process steps, and a corporate footprint adds its products. We take operational data from your metered volumes, discharge records and effluent quality, and supply chain data from suppliers, published databases and models, and we label each figure measured, estimated or reported. Recycling and reuse lower the blue footprint only when they cut consumptive use, so we check that before we count a saving. This water accounting and reporting basis carries through to your disclosure.
Phase 3: Sustainability Assessment
We compare the footprint with the water available and the quality needed in each catchment, month by month, to find the hotspots where the footprint is unsustainable. We look at the environmental, social and economic sides. We then ask whether each component is needed at all and whether it sits in a hotspot. This is where a large footprint in a water-rich place is told apart from a smaller one in a water-scarce place.
Phase 4: Response Formulation
We rank responses by effect and cost: reduce and reuse in operations, change the process or the materials, work with suppliers, and replenish where it is sound. Our watershed water conservation assessment shows how replenishment volumes are estimated. We set targets against the footprint. Compensation is debated: adding water in one basin does not remove consumption in another, so we keep any compensation separate from the footprint account and do not net it off.
05 / ISO 14046
ISO 14046-Aligned Assessment: The Impact-Based Method
ISO 14046:2014 is the international standard for the water footprint of products, processes and organisations. It is based on life cycle assessment, as set out in ISO 14044. Under ISO 14046 the term water footprint is used only for the result of an impact assessment, and the result is a single value or a profile of impact indicator results. Reporting is covered by the standard; communicating results through labels or declarations is not. The standard was confirmed as current in 2020, and India has adopted it as IS/ISO 14046:2014. Read ISO 14046:2014 on the ISO website.
Which Method Do You Need?
Volumetric (Water Footprint Network)
Volumes of blue, green and grey water. Best for awareness, hotspots, supply chain mapping and reduction targets.
Impact-based (ISO 14046-aligned)
Impact indicators from life cycle assessment. Best for comparing products, feeding a life cycle study, and reporting in line with a recognised standard.
The two answer different questions, and their numbers are not interchangeable. We tell you which fits your purpose, and we can do both where the data allow.
06 / Footprint or audit
Water Footprint or Water Audit: Which Do You Need?
Water Audit
Measures the water inside the fence: metered volumes, losses, utilities and a balance. Choose it to find savings and fix leaks. See our water audit service.
Water Footprint
Adds the type of water, the supply chain and the local scarcity. Choose it to find hotspots, set targets and answer customers.
A reliable audit gives the footprint its direct figures, so the two often go together.
07 / Next steps
From Footprint to Targets, Disclosure and Neutrality
A footprint shows how large a reduction is possible and where, so targets rest on numbers.
GRI 303 water and effluents defines water consumption as water withdrawal minus water discharge. A footprint adds the supply chain view, and our BRSR reporting and GRI Based Sustainability Reporting services can use it.
The footprint can supply the baseline for a water neutral claim. See our water neutrality consulting.
A water efficiency management system keeps reductions in place. See our ISO 46001 consulting.
08 / Impact stories
Water Footprint in Practice: A Worked Example
No client footprint is shown on this page. This is an illustration with invented numbers, to show how a footprint reads. It is not a result.
- A plant makes 1,000 tonnes of a product a year.
- Blue. It withdraws 50,000 cubic metres and returns 35,000 to the same river in the same period. The blue footprint is the 15,000 cubic metres that evaporate or go into the product.
- Grey. Its effluent carries a pollutant load that needs 10,000 cubic metres of river water to dilute it to the standard. The grey footprint is 10,000.
- Green. None, because the plant grows no crops.
- Direct footprint. 25,000 cubic metres a year, or 25 cubic metres per tonne.
- Indirect footprint. The raw materials are grown on irrigated and rain-fed farms. Suppose their footprint is 400,000 cubic metres a year, or 400 per tonne.
What it shows: the total is 425 cubic metres per tonne, and the plant's own operations are about 6 percent of it. An audit would go after the 15,000 cubic metres of consumption and any leaks. The footprint shows that about 94 percent of the water sits upstream, so supplier action may matter more. Even effluent that meets the standard carries a grey footprint, because it uses up part of the river's capacity.
09 / Verification
Independent Verification and Certification Readiness
We verify only the footprints we did not prepare.
We provide independent third-party verification of water footprints that we did not prepare. It is a non-statutory service: we review the boundary, the method, the data and the calculation, and we report what we found.
We also give advisory support for readiness for verification and certification by other bodies, including ISO 14046 verification by certification bodies. Certificates, labels and declarations are issued by those bodies, not by us.
We do not verify a footprint that we prepared. Where we advised on or built the system behind a number, we do not assure that number. We are an AA1000 licensed assurance provider, and we keep that work apart from our advice. Read our Independence and Impartiality Policy.
10 / Questions
Water Footprint Assessment: Your Questions Answered
Each answer starts with the direct answer, then adds the detail.
What is Water Footprint or Water Footprinting?
A water footprint is the amount of freshwater used, consumed and polluted to produce each unit of the goods and services an organisation offers. It can be measured for a single process, for a product such as a bottle of fruit juice, or for an entire organisation, and in a wider view for a country, a region or the globe. The idea was developed to improve water management at the global level, and the footprint is an indicator of the load a business places on water. Consultivo is one of the practising water footprint consultants in India, and helps organisations apply water footprint assessment to a product, a facility or the entire company.
What is Company Water stewardship?
Water stewardship is the way an organisation manages the balance between its own water use and the needs of society, communities and natural habitats. Good stewards understand their own water use, the catchment context and shared risk in terms of water governance, water balance, water quality and important water-related areas, and they take planned and meaningful action. Stewardship helps a company understand its physical, reputational, financial and regulatory water risks and plan to reduce them. See our water sustainability consulting, our water audit service and our Environmental Consultants.
How Water Footprint Or Water Footprinting Assessment Helps You?
It gives you a quantitative view of your water consumption pattern, for a product or for the organisation as a whole. It helps you understand how and where water is used in your operations and product life cycle, what risks and opportunities may result from water scarcity now and in the future, and how to establish and prioritise opportunities as the basis for decisions. It also gives a more reliable and extensive database for a water conservation policy, and a sound base for a water strategy and water stewardship.
What are blue, green and grey water footprints?
Blue is surface and groundwater that is consumed, green is rainwater that is consumed, mainly by crops and forests, and grey is the freshwater needed to dilute pollution to the quality standard. Together they give the full footprint.
What is the difference between a water footprint and a water audit?
A water audit measures the water inside the fence to find losses and savings. A water footprint adds the type of water, the supply chain and the local scarcity. See our water audit service.
What is the difference between the Water Footprint Network method and ISO 14046?
The Water Footprint Network method gives volumes of blue, green and grey water. ISO 14046 gives impact-based results from life cycle assessment. They answer different questions, so their numbers should not be compared as if they were one metric.
Is a water footprint the same as water withdrawal?
No. A water footprint leaves out blue water returned to where it came from, adds green and grey water, and adds indirect use in the supply chain.
Does a water footprint include the supply chain?
Yes, if you choose that boundary. The direct footprint covers your operations and the indirect footprint covers your suppliers. For most businesses the indirect part is much larger.
Can you verify or certify our water footprint?
We provide independent third-party verification of footprints we did not prepare, as a non-statutory service, and we support your readiness for certification by other bodies. We do not issue ISO or other certificates; independent certification bodies do.
Can a water footprint support BRSR and GRI 303 reporting?
Yes. GRI 303 defines water consumption as water withdrawal minus water discharge, and a footprint adds the supply chain view. See our BRSR reporting service.
Can a water footprint be offset?
Offsetting is debated. Adding water in one basin does not remove consumption in another, so we keep any compensation separate from the footprint account. For a water neutral claim, see our water neutrality consulting.
What decides the quote?
The entity (a product, a site or the organisation), whether you include the supply chain, the methods you choose and how much data you hold. We quote after a short scoping call.
Find a solution that works for you
From legal compliance to net zero and water stewardship — pick the path that matches your risk, your goals and your reporting needs.
Environmental Risk
(Focus: Legal, Regulatory, and Governance Requirements)
Climate Solutions
(Focus: Decarbonization, Strategy, and Efficiency)
Water Management
(Focus: Water, Waste, and Resource Circularity)
About Consultivo Environmental and ESG Services
Consultivo specialises in comprehensive Environmental Services, and ESG Services, including Environmental Audits, Environmental Due Diligence, Carbon Management, and Energy Management & Audits. We support ISO 14001 implementation, Water Sustainability, and Green Audits for truly sustainable operations.
About Consultivo
Consultivo is one of the leading ESG Consultants in India
An Advisory, Research, Audit & Training organisation helping global businesses in the areas of Sustainability, Business Excellence & Risk Management both at the strategic and operational levels.
Major service verticals include Safety, Sustainability, Environment & Energy, CSR, Management Systems, Organisational Development and Human Capital Development. Consultivo works with 100+ National and International Sustainability related codes, standards and guidelines.
Apart from Independent External Assurance, as a leading ESG Consultant based in India, Consultivo offers ESG Materiality Assessment and Strategy Consulting, ESG Implementation Handholding, Stakeholder Mapping and Engagement, ESG, Sustainability and BRSR Report Preparation and ESG Report Design.
Consultivo Academy offers training and capacity building services both in conventional and new age e-learning platforms.
13 / Request for proposal
Request a Water Footprint Assessment Quote
Tell us what you want to know: a product, a site or the whole organisation, with or without the supply chain. We will arrange a short scoping call and send a quote.
This service is part of our water sustainability consulting. Call us on +91 98311 45556. Consultivo Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd., registered office 2 Rabindra Nath Tagore Road, Kolkata 700076, India. We serve clients across India and internationally.
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