Shared Desitiny

I recently had lunch with an old friend who currently works for an OEM. We used to work together, in fact sit next to each other in adjacent cubicles almost a decade ago. It is always so fun to meet up with old buddies and catch-up. We talked about our respective careers, family, etc. and then the conversation turned to how the current economy and the state of the world is affecting our lives. I realized that over the last nine years, we have drifted apart in our world view. My friend was definitely not happy with globalization and the fact that the OEM's products, manufactured in the US, are having great difficulty competing against global onslaught of similar but low quality products at a cheaper price. The current procurement system in the Federal and Municipal market picks low price over quality. While there is a mandate to buy American-made products, it is not working. My friend is also not in favor of the environmental qualifications required in US as opposed to the other countries who do not have those restrictions. Very valid points.

And I agree with my friend. Our policies are broken! Where we differ is that my friend thinks that the government should not be putting these environmental mandates in place and should block our import of cheap, and often times low quality, foreign products; while I think we need to work on fixing our purchasing policies. The purchasing decision should be based on 'total' cost including the capital, environment, and operations/ maintenance footprint instead of just basing the decision strictly on capital costs.

Why? Everyone on this planet now share a common destiny. The time for insularity is gone and it will never be the same again. For the last century, US was the major political and financial power, now we are seeing a multipolar world with India, China, European Union, and Brazil sharing the stage. Technology has made it possible to communicate across continents faster than we can bat an eyelid. Disintermediation is rapidly changing the marketplace, e.g. the market for phones, books, newspapers, etc. The markets are no longer the way we knew them to be for the last 60 years. The Water, Energy, and Food industries as we know are going through a dramatic transformation; their interdependence is becoming more prominent on a global scale.

The sooner we start appreciating the changed climate, the better we will be to compete in this new marketplace. We have no choice! We can all sit and complain that 'the past was better' and resist the change as much as we can, but the reality is that we are already on this one-way highway, all together. So, what should we do? Here are my ideas:

• Update the purchasing policies to reflect the new reality of global marketplace and shared destiny. The criteria for purchasing should now be based on the life cycle costs as defines in ISO 14000. This implies that when purchasing a pump for example, the entire footprint is considered along the entire supply chain, that is mining the iron ore in Australia, building the impeller and pump house in China, assembly in Germany, installation and use in the US, followed by re-purposed in India. When all this is accounted for, the 'true cost' of the equipment / technology will create a level playing field for all. When I worked with Water Corporation (Perth, Australia), we had reviewed this method of sustainable selection.
• As a manufacturer / service provider, we need to start looking to gather and furnish data that will enable purchasers to make an educated decision. Set up a sustainability program in your business to facilitate this process and you will notice that it will have a high return on investment. Your sustainability program will be your differentiator, and will focus on making your business more attractive to both your clients and employees.

These are not my words, but are so very true: We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. Sustainability is about enlightened self-interest.

Hi-Tech Teabags to Filter Water

Every now and then we come across some team or another trying to design clean water solutions for the 1.2 billion people who do not have access to clean drinking water. We have heard about the LifeStraw, now South African scientists are developing carbon fiber teabags that can filter water. We commend such out-of-the-box ideas. We need more of them, especially since one in three persons on this planet live in a situation where they cannot get clean water.

When working on a potential global solution to address safe water, there are a few points we need to consider:

Price Point. The cost of the solution needs to match the ability of the customers. LifeStraw is priced too high, may work in disaster conditions when there is aid flowing through and these units are heavily subsidized or distributed free; but not for regular use. Also, care should be taken so that when the solution is employed for regular use, the item is not given away for free. When we pay for an item, we place a value on it and appreciate it. Price of the solution therefore should be right - affordable while creating a sense of value.

Reuse. Disposable items are not favored by the masses. Where poverty reigns, people become expert recyclers. When they get a new dress, they save it till the old ones are worn out. Then they take out the new dress on a special occasion. Once the new dress has lost it's luster, they will make bed sheets out of it. When that's worn out, they will use it as towels. Then they will reuse the large towels as small hand towels. When those wear out, they may stitch them up to use as rags. When the rags wear out, they may use them as pulp for something else. That is how poverty works. We may not like it or feel sorry for such methods, but it is the reality. Hence, as designers we need to be cognizant of this need for reuse and design equipment such that there is residual uses after the primary function has been met.

Education. When we design single use items, such as filters, we often forget to understand the limitations of the end users to comprehend the useful life of such items. Education is very important. We need to explain not only the purpose of the filter (e.g. how it cleans the water and saves lives), we will have to educate the end users on how to (and how not to) use the filter, when the filter is no longer working (end of useful life), how to regenerate, etc. Even in the US with 100% literacy, we have found many water systems being operated way under capacity and without understanding of the fundamentals thereby causing much harm to the environment. Education and training is of utmost importance, may be even more than the solution itself.

Community Solutions. In most poor countries where water scarcity is severe, the most sustainable solution is a community solution instead of individual solutions. Communities in these areas share similar financial, familial, political, and social virtues and very rarely will you find an individualistic trait. Individualism is prominent in more affluent societies where competition is severe for luxuries of life. In societies where people are focused on basic survival issues, community solutions work more effectively and should be encouraged. Focus should be on simple indigenous solutions that are developed, designed, and built locally by the people. The people can then take ownership of the project, feel proud of their creation, and take care of it.

PROTEUS Consulting is very dedicated to help create a world where everyone has access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. We work with various researchers around the world who are working to address this goal. We also work with NGOs such as Water For People who is active in implementing such solutions. If you are interested to help out or learn more about our efforts, please contact us.

Protean Vision: Making the Food-Energy-Water Nexus a Reality

Yesterday USEPA announced that $9.8 million will be provided in grants to 38 states, territories and tribes to help protect the health of swimmers at America’s beaches. The agency also launched an improved website, BEACON 2.0 for beach advisories and closings, which will allow the public to easily access  current water quality and pollution testing information for more than 6,000 U.S. beaches.

This is good news indeed. Our beaches will get cleaner, the public more aware, and hopefully as a result we will all enjoy a better quality of life. There are many who will say that $10 million is not enough to clean all the beaches in 38 states, and that is probably true.

We at Proteus believe that this effort, while commendable, is a very little part of the whole solution. The question here is why do we have beach closures? Where is the pollution coming from? There are two kinds of sources - point sources and nonpoint sources. We have some laws that try to protect these sources and probably does a good enough job at it. But EPA here is working on an 'end of the pipe' solution for the whole issue, and hence is not always successful is solving the complex problem.

And a complex problem it is. The problem is a web or interrelated issues - food, water, and energy. We can only go so far by addressing the issues within the silos of food, water, and energy. It is time now to start looking at all the relationships and devising enterprising inter-related solutions. Food production involves a lot of water, preferably clean water. With the erratic weather patterns and reduced flows in the rivers and streams, it is becoming increasingly difficult to carve out sufficient irrigation water to grow food. Cleaning the water for consumption and also the wastewater for reintroduction into the rivers and streams are also becoming more and more expensive due to ever increasing energy prices. Energy production on the other hand requires a lot of water for cooling towers and process. Even if we want to invest in "green" biofuels, we still need water to develop them which is becoming scarce. The way the world works right now is that the three industries (agriculture, water, and energy) and their governing agencies and laws act in their silos. Each group sets goals, creates plans, and embarks on those plans without consulting the other groups. In governments around the world, there is no integration of policies!

Source: WEF 2011

As the world hits the seven billion mark, we enter a new era of resource restrictions. Scarcity of food, water, and energy will become more severe and conflicts will arise, there is no doubt about it. The silver lining in this is that we will become more resourceful (pun intended) to devise solutions for this resource strapped planet. At Proteus, we believe that we can achieve this by four ways, and equal strides are needed in each of these paths:

• Businesses need to become resource efficient, preferably with a net-zero environmental footprint.
• Governments will need to develop integrated policies that encompass food-water-energy nexus.
• NGOs and other non-profits will need to start taking very active role in developing solutions, sometimes leading the thought process.
• Citizens of the world will need to make consumption decisions with sustainability in mind.

Businesses need to become resource efficient, preferably with a net-zero environmental footprint. It makes business sense to focus on resource efficiency because as the resources get depleted, the competitive market will leave no choice for businesses. The risks of resource depletion and uncertainty will become so high that conservation and efficiency will dominate decisions to ensure economic success. Sustainability focus is no longer a public relations campaign, it's a matter of survival. We see some companies already embracing this mantra and through our incubation services, Proteus now helps young start-up companies to make the right start. We also counsel established companies and municipalities to review their current strategies and procedures and reorient to focus on the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.

Governments around the world will need to develop integrated policies that encompass food-water-energy nexus. Governments and it's agencies including municipalities need to focus on creating holistic policies that address the issues and challenges in all the three industry sectors. Care should be taken so that policies of one sector do not erode the policies of the other. Proteus has the foresight and talent to  help build that consensus and facilitate the creation of these integrated policies. Out specific talent lies int he fact that we are Open and Willing to new ideas, knowledge, and perspectives. We see the elephant for what it is and hence can direct the teams to move towards solutions that are fit-for-purpose.

Graphic credit

NGOs and other non-profits will need to start taking very active role in developing solutions, sometimes leading the thought process. We see a great need for NGOs and other non-profits to work as involved stakeholders in developing solutions, both in developing and developed countries. We commend and support organizations like Water For People that focus on implementing projects only when the entire local community of entrepreneurs, civil society, and governments are involved and engaged. We believe that economic, social and environmentally sustainable projects can only happen when we can establish creative, collaborative solutions that allow people to build, take ownership, and maintain their own systems. This empowering of everyone transforms people’s lives by improving health and economic productivity. During our daily business here at Proteus, we engage with NGOs and non-profits by mutual education, discussion, and exchange of ideas.

Citizens of the world will need to make consumption decisions with sustainability in mind. This is indeed a tall order to ask every global citizen to understand the state of the planet and it's frailty and then make choices that will turn the tide from personal greed towards a sense of cohabitation. This is very difficult. But it is not impossible. At Proteus, we strive to lead by example and help spread the 'story' by education and collaboration. We also commend agencies that have started a mass movement to determine how we can produce and consume more sustainably.

PROTEUS Consulting is 15 months old. We have had a great journey and look forward to a fantastic year ahead. We appreciate the support of all our mentors and well-wishers, we could not have done it without you. Thank you!

The Challenge for CleanTech

PROTEUS Consulting is very involved in CleanTech and we are pleased to see the innovation happening in recycling, renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, biomass), energy efficiency, water efficiency, gray water, lighting, electric motors, information technology, and green transportation. The aim of these technologies are to create a smaller environmental footprint and reduce pollution. This indeed great that it's happening, it was needed.

The concern that we have, however, is about sustainability. Sustainability is about incorporating all the three aspects - economic, environmental, and people, and to look at viability of a technology / project on a long-tern life-cycle scale. This is best shown in this graphic by Water Corporation.

Most CleanTech projects we are finding these days are predominantly in the second Economic slice (i.e. "Find Efficiencies"). Most technologies deal with "Prevent Harm" in Environmental slice with very few actually looking at "Conserve Environmental Value". As for the Social aspect, most of these technologies are also in the first slice - "Protect Health & Wellbeing".

We feel that the push has to be towards "Create Value, Enhance Ecological Resilience, and Enhance Communities". For that life cycle analysis of the proposed technologies is essential and imperative. As an end-user, owners should ask for a comprehensive assessment of the entire technology and evaluate it's complete impact. As a clean technology provider, one should also look at presenting this information to the client. How else can a technology really be proclaimed as a 'CleanTech'? What are the metrics?

Another post on this issue can be found here.

Strategies for Managers to Achieve Excellence in the Workplace

Below is the second of the two presentations I gave this morning at the 2011 AWWA Education Extravaganza. This talk actually flows from the first one. You cannot fix the problems in your organization or the greater society if you have not fixed yourself first. Working on yourself is the first step.

To be an effective manager you have to do two things - set forth a clear set of values and performance (results) expectations, and have a rigorous appraisal system. Additionally, you also have to earn the trust from your team members in order to be able to energize and activate them. That requires two things - be candid all the time, and do what you say (no matter how hard it is!)

Enjoy the presentation below. If you want a copy, please email me at consultproteus at gmail dot com.'

This presentation was also full house, standing room only! I was very happy.  Here too, I look forward to your reactions and input - What do you think? What has been your experience? What are your challenges? Please share your stories or issues with me, I will love to hear them.

I gave two presentations today. Find the first presentation here.

How to improve your work and life - be Happy!

Below is the first of the two presentations I gave this morning at the 2011 AWWA Education Extravaganza  I picked an unusual topic to talk about at a Water Industry event - Happiness and how we can achieve it. It is a topic that no one wants to talk about but everyone seems to be curious about!

As I said during the talk and I repeat here: I am no expert. Most people in the audience and who are reading this are most probably older than me and had life experiences more profound than mine. I do not claim to be any 'guru' in this field or in anything else, I am human. I have my frustrations, my struggles, my fears, and my anxieties; I also have my goals, my dreams and my hopes - just like everyone else out there. I have made some fabulous choices in life, and some really terrible ones. I am in no position to dispel any profound wisdom - what I share here is knowledge that I have gathered during my life experiences. I am just sharing my 'Aha- moments' with everyone - in the hope that it may help someone out there who is looking for an answer.
I have "miles to go before I sleep".....

If you want a copy of this presentation, please email me: consultproteus at gmail dot com.

We had a full house this morning! Standing room only! I was very pleased. I hope I made some connections today, and was able to plant some seeds that will make my audience take the path towards peace in their lives.

I will VERY interested to hear from you - What do you think? What is your perspective? What has been your life experiences? What has been your lessons learned? What are the issues you are working on? What do you struggle with? What do need help on? Can I help you?


I gave two presentations today. Find the next presentation here.

Alternative Selection - How to incorporate Sustainability

Most alternative selection is currently based on NPV (net present worth) analysis of capital and O&M costs. While that is still required, incorporating sustainability is almost required these days to have a viable fit-for-purpose asset selection. Most agencies and engineers are confused with how to incorporate sustainability principles into their decision making process. Enclosed is a presentation where Water Corporation made a proactive approach to start incorporating sustainability principles into design decisions.

I was involved in this project while working for W2W Alliance.

Sustainability is to this decade as what Quality was in the 70s

The 60s saw the birth of The Quality Revolution and it took couple decades to get into the mainstream thought. Companies like Toyota and Motorola had embraced it in the 70s. They treated quality as an opportunity for process improvements rather than cost and benefited dramatically. They shot way ahead of their competitors and the latter are still playing catch-up requiring costly bail-outs from the government every now and then.

Today we are at the threshold of the Sustainability Revolution. The infancy decade for Sustainability is past, we are now on the second phase. Those who embrace it now will shoot ahead, and those who do not will fade to the background. Lip service will not be enough, this is a revolution and it calls for action, measurable action.

Companies who will derive competitive advantages from their sustainability programs will have to treat these programs as an opportunity and not simply an added cost to absorb, another risk to manage or one more regulation with which to comply with. Commitment is the key with action to follow.

Ambiguity still surrounds the term sustainability. We are bombarded with several terms - greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon footprint, global warming, water footprint, cleantech, bio mimicry, eco-engineering, etc. Most companies now have vision statements that encompass Sustainability, but the leaders of these companies are usually a bit concerned and confused on how to implement these initiatives. Here are a few pointers:

• We need a strong determined CEO to champion this cause and be highly visible to the company. He/ She sets the tone and promotes a change of thinking.
• Next he/ she needs to install carefully selected leaders in the organization who will lead and bring about continuous improvement towards sustainability - these leaders will have to come from all sectors in the company organization.
• Multi-disciplinary teams will have to be inspired to come up with sustainable operation ideas not only in products but also in processes.
• Focus on integrating sustainable processes deep into the work culture of the company. 
• Link sustainability performance indicators directly with professional growth and encourage innovation.

Sustainability is not a buzz word anymore, it's time for action. If we do not act now we only have ourselves to blame when  we lose the competitive advantage in the coming years. Proteus Consulting is committed to helping our clients achieve the next break through and surge ahead by embracing Sustainability.

Rainwater Harvesting

When San Diegans hear of Rainwater Harvesting eyebrows go up. The speaker is first labeled a left-leaning-extreme-thinker. Then the reasons why we cannot do rainwater harvesting start popping up - usually talk of perceived safety concerns of unclean water and reduction of quality of life.

Well here is how the ancient people made it work and cities lived comfortably as a result.



Note the following theme:

1. Desert civilization - dry climate similar and at times worse than San Diego
2. Respect - water was treated not as a commodity, but with respect
3. Local solution - water not shipped from thousands of miles away
4. Conservation - people used very less water per capita so everyone can use the precious resource
5. Common purpose - everyone abides by the watershed boundaries and invests sweat equity

Yes, we can do Value Based Water Management in San Diego too. We need to will it. Rainwater Harvesting is just one such option. We can do this on a house to house level as well as on a community and regional  level. We just have to think outside the box. The water insecurity in San Diego right now is appalling with more than 80% of our water coming from outside the county. We have to move towards water security if we really want to see economic prosperity and quality of life.

On a house-to-house level, we have to install rain barrels to meet our irrigation needs. Contact your local entrepreneur for ideas and solutions.  Rainthanks is one such local micro business and they do a fantastic job. Of course, moving to attractive colorful xeriscape is a good option as well.

On a community level, we need to ask the policy makers to issue programs like this one in Oakland, CA. San Diego has a program, but it's not promoted at this time. In Brisbane, I have seen how effective these programs were. It's surely worth copying. And after this starts working, we need to start looking at harvesting stormwater in our local watersheds on a regional level to enhance our water security.

Water-Energy Nexus – It’s not a pie-in-the sky anymore – It’s happening!

Proteus Consulting is implementing the Water-Energy Nexus! We have teamed with Viridity Energy to identify avenues of energy savings at water and wastewater facilities. Our team undertakes a thorough evaluation of the use of energy resources at water and wastewater facilities and develops a management algorithm to optimally schedule energy management a day-ahead and real-time energy markets. This is called Dynamic Energy Optimization.

There are many energy auditors who review facilities and identify capital improvement projects to reduce energy usage, for example, implementing VFDs on pumps and fans, or adding efficient blowers. Usually these measures have a return on investment of two to four years with subsidies from the energy companies and the government.  Then what? Well, the Proteus-Viridity Team goes a step ahead. We help create a continuous revenue stream back to the utility by real time monitoring and management of energy use and then working the energy market.

Currently, the Proteus-Viridity Team is assisting New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) to enable energy optimization at their wastewater treatment facilities that treat 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater in the five boroughs of the great city.

Value Based Water Management

Value based water management is a topic that I think of often. I believe that there is an intrinsic link between human values and what humans do to the water scape. Science and technological advances have enabled us to be better manipulators of our natural environment and made our lives more comfortable. We no longer have to walk five miles everyday to get a bucket of water and enjoy acres of lush green lawns and rain forest recreation in the middle of a dessert. We have indeed come a long way from how our ancestors lived. While we have devised new ways to secure a cocooned life, we have lost our symbiotic relationship with nature. That hurts us now in more ways than we can comprehend. In some ways, I think, in spite of all the technological advances, we have become 'stupider'!

Man is a part of nature, not above it. All ancient cultures recognized this. Be it Native Americans, the Tribes in Africa and Asia, or the Aboriginals in Australia... All these cultures had the same underlying principle (or philosophy) - "Respect nature". It was this respect that also allowed them to manipulate the environment, BUT with the emphasis on not doing any harm. Living in those days meant understanding and existing in harmony with the environment rather than dominating it. Nature was not the enemy, nor was it a commodity that can be exploited for wealth and power. Nature had a value of it's own in day to day life where every living thing (and sometimes non living thing as well) were interconnected and had a special function. Plants nourished animals, animals were then hunted for food, and then when humans expired, it became food for the pants. It was the circle of life. Yes, every ancient culture truly believed in this philosophy and practiced it diligently.  Yes, they all sought to "improve" their natural world all the time, but they limited such improvements to what was necessary. The operative words here are "as necessary", and not the indiscriminate slaughter and wasteful gathering. This material life was abhorred by ancient cultures through spiritual tenets, and these tenets were very sensitive to the balances in delicate ecosystems. They recognized that adverse interference in ecosystems threatened their own existence as wells as the natural world on which they depended and of which they were an integral part.

Where are we now? We are sitting in a big luxury motor home, cruising along a highway with no destination in sight. We are not in the driver's seat, we are just a passenger. We do not know where we are going, we don't even care. We love the comfort of this padded home and as long as the truck is moving, the scenery is good, there is fuel, water, and air conditioning, why do we have to care about anything else? Well, we have lost touch with the fundamental concept that no matter how much we think we have 'grown up', our umbilical cord is still attached with nature. There is no escape, and you cannot cut it off.

A friend put it another way: "We are like a bunch of youngsters, who got high on alcohol and drugs one night and decided to rent a boat and take a ride up and down the river. We pushed the boat into the water and started paddling away. We were drunk and drugged, mind you. We passed out after a while - it was a lot of work to just keep paddling! Dawn broke, we woke up.  We realized that we had not gone more than couple yards from the shore. What? How? Well, we forgot to lift the anchor! So there we were, paddling through the night, all drunk and drugged up and imagining a beautiful scenery go by."

Every decision and choice we make comes at a cost. We have been seasoned to not look at "total solutions" but only to put the brackets where it seems to fit us the best right now. This conditioning did not happen overnight. We all have evolved from the nature-loving ancient cultures very slowly, over 6,000 years. First we started looking at nature as a resource to be exploited, primarily for community, and hence for nation building. We justified it by saying that the common good and mutual benefits ranked higher than individual self-interest. Then, slowly that cause got morphed to a spirited individualism and an appetite for a perceived profit that heightened the exploitation of nature to new levels. Land, energy, and water got colonized in political and legal institutions generating colossal conflicts and social turmoil.

Oh well, we are where we are! What can we do now? We have to reverse engineer our way back to nature-loving humans again. The first thing we need is the will to do so. That will has to come from within each individual. The pendulum has to swing back from individualism to harmony with nature. And this swing can be accelerated by the terrific brains we already have. The brackets have to move further out, from individuals to community, and then to the whole world encompassing the entire life cycle of each element. For water, we will have to look at total water management - effectively manage every drop we have and use it most efficiently while not exploiting the natural resources. We have to become more creative on how to capture, use, and reuse water with zero discharge and waste. We also have to move away from central facilities to micro / community level facilities. We have to learn to appreciate the rhythms of nature and work with it to create opportunities, not fight it.

In subsequent blogs I will lay out my vision and plan of sustainable water management that will be synchronous with the values learned from ancient cultures. It will by no means be easy, and I am not saying that you have to go to a primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyle. We have to respect nature for what she is, and not fight her, but harmonize with her. We have the brains to do it, we just don't seem to find the will.

The Green Car

I am thinking of buying a new car. I drive a 2001 Subaru Forester and absolutely love the car. But I know that sooner or later I will have to get a new one. So what should I get? Of course, I want to go as 'green' as possible. With the new Volt and Leaf coming to the market, the electric cars seem to be a 'greener' choice compared to the hybrids. But is it really? What if my car is actually running on coal? This article got me all worked up! Where is the electricity I am charging my car by really coming from? How much 'greener' is that source of electricity  than the gasoline?

I am going to research this issue further. Stay tuned.

What is your Water Footprint?

Carbon footprint is a major topic of discussion these days and every one seems to have an opinion on it, one way or the other. While that debate goes on, I would like to introduce you to the concept of Water Footprint. Have you thought about it?

Several items play into creating our Water Footprint: the water that is consumed by us, the water that is used to create and dispose the products we use, and the global trade of these products. The total Water Footprint can be broken down into three major components: the blue, the green, and the grey. Blue water footprint is the volume of freshwater used up from the global water resources to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community. For example, the use of water to irrigate crops. Green water footprint is the volume of water used up from the global green water resources such as the rainwater stored in the soil as soil moisture. And, grey water footprint is the volume of  wastewater generated from goods and services used and is calculated as the volume of water required to dilute the wastewater to attain a quality better than or equal to international water quality standards. The graphic below shows your total water footprint.

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Source: Hoekstra,  A.Y. (2008) Water neutral: reducing and offsetting the impacts of water footprints, Value of Water Research Report Series No.28, UNESCO-IHE.

Historically, we have been aware of only the little box on the left named "water withdrawal" because that is what we see as the gallons of water consumed on our water bills. But we fail comprehend the amount of water we consume on a daily basis via the products and services we use.


Here is your water cost for common items used daily:
A cotton shirt = 2,700 litres (713 gallons)
A cup of coffee = 140 liters (37 gallons)
100 gms (~3.5oz) of chocolate = 2,400 liters (634 gallons)
1 kg (~1/2 lb) sugar = 1,500 liters (396 gallons)
1 kg (~1/2 lb) tomatoes = 180 liters (48 gallons)
1 glass of wine = 120 liters (32 gallons)
1 hamburger = 2,400 liters (634 gallons)
1 kg leather (as in shoes, bags, etc) = 16,600 liters (4,385 gallons)
1 sheet of A4 paper = 10 liters (2.7 gallons)

And yes, the 'green fuels' like bio-ethanol and bio-diesel have water footprints too. This footprint does not get incorporated into the case for "green" energy, but they should!! See the figure below.

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Source: Gerbens-Leenes, W., Hoekstra, A.Y. and Van der Meer, T.H. (2009) The water footprint of bio-energy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS Early Edition, doi:10.1073/pnas.0812619106.

Next, there is a global perspective to water footprint since global trade influences the water footprint to a great extent. Consumption of goods in one place has significant impact on the water resources in another place – and that is nothing new.


Here is a comparison of the countries with their water footprints – no surprises, really!

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[Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

I am not against global trade, but buying local would be a good practice. It's hard, I know!
I don’t want you to get all guilty and stop drinking water and eating, but being conscious of your impact in this world is a good thing to be aware of. You can buy your way out of your carbon footprint and feel all giddy about it, but the only way to offset you water footprint is to be aware of the choices you make.

To the "Green Community", I urge you to start including water footprint in your calculation. A design / plan can only be truly sustainable if "WATER" is considered along with energy.

To all you tech savvy people out there who care about your water footprint, there is an iPhone App for you!!

Credit: Thoughts and information presented in this blog is from http://www.waterfootprint.org/ It is an amazing website with loads of information. I urge you all to visit this website and learn more about Water Footprint.