Virtual Water- Rethinking our Consuption Patterns
Everyday, each and every one of us uses large amounts of water in our cooking, drinking, cleaning, by simply brushing our teeth and running the shower. But have we ever taken our virtual-water consumption into consideration, too? The term refers to the total volume of freshwater used to produce a final product- the sum of water use in the various steps of its’ production chain. By adding actual water consumption to virtual consumption we can calculate our water footprint, the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce commodities, goods and services consumed by a person, company or nation.
Based on the study “Water Footprint of Nations” by Chapagain, A.K. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (Value of Water Research Report Series No. 16, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands), German designer Timm Kekeritz created a double-sided poster to illustrate the issues concerning virtual water consumption in different parts of the world and demonstrating how much water is contained in our everyday goods. Although the poster is more illustrative rather than a step-by-step instruction guide on how to lower our water footprint, it nonetheless is worth checking out here.
