The importance of environmental awareness is growing, but is focused on climate change and air pollution. The carbon footprint concept internationally represents a well-known notion, which can be calculated by individuals and companies. On the other hand the water footprint is a newborn concept, introduced in 2002 by UNESCO-IHE as an alternative indicator of water usage and consumption. Several surveys and numerous studies on various water footprint scenarios exist, however there is no international standard with a fully recognised methodology.
This May, a summit for water footprint reporting was held in Brussels aiming to investigate the role of business versus the role of governments, NGOs and consumers and map out the road to shared global standards. The Managing Director of CSE, Mr. Nikos Avlonas, participated in the summit as a speaker on the topic: “Understanding the importance of water in the broader context” while CSE was a supporting organisation for the summit. The issues which were discussed during his presentation included Water Footprint practice, CSR-Reporting and Water Footprint – Key examples. Organisations, including Henkel, Anglo American, Diageo, Coca-Cola, Evian, Danone, Unilever, participated in the summit and presented their corporate experience on water footprint & water management.
CSE provides advanced services on carbon footprint strategy and product Carbon Life cycle assessment and moves at exploring the potential of water footprint concept and guidelines.