This tool can also be used in a more interesting way, manufacturers can label there products' footprint so consumers are aware how much water a certain item uses during it's manufacturing process. Did you know that for the production of one cup of fresh coffee you need 140 litres of water while the production of one kilogram of beef requires 16,000 litres of water.
An pioneer in this field is Raisio a Finnish food manufacturer who introduced a H2O label on its oat flakes.
According to the New York Times:
"Over the past couple of years, the idea of reporting carbon footprints for various products, as a way of allowing consumers to make informed choices about the items they buy, has gained wider acceptance. Now there are signs that other indicators — including water-use footprints — appear to be coming into the mix.
The label used by Raisio indicates the water that the plant uses for growth and production, as well as what’s discarded as waste water. The company said it was “the world’s first food company to add an H2O label to product packaging” and that it had developed its own calculation model because no internationally established formula and product label yet exists."
Would you keep in mind a carbon or water footprint when deciding which product you will purchase? Or do you think labeling is getting out of control?
Source: Worldchanging
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