Sustainable Water Use

Important changes in European environmental legislation will influence any long-term strategy considered for water supply and demand. We will see a much stricter implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) the Habitats Directive etc, new water quantification goals to protect eco-systems and increased integration of water policy objectives into other policy areas such as the Common Agricultural policy. This will affect all stakeholders as policies move towards:

• Adopting new water allocation measures to users in river basins
• Addressing pressures from increased frequency of flooding, droughts and water scarcity
• Improving water efficiency of business operations and consumers
• Improving wastewater treatment standards
• Reducing pollution to achieve the WFD “good status”
• Implementing solutions to diffuse pollution problems and how farming methods may need change, for example, adopting more natural solutions (i.e. green infrastructure approach, such as Natural Water Retention Measures)
• Reducing hydromorphological pressures where possible by restoring river continuity
• Consideration of new water pricing policies and water trading
• Further enforcement action

Several tools and guidance documents have been produced recently to assess business risk from water resource related factors (quantity & quality). However one of the key issues faced by business (whether public or private sector) has been what to measure (and how to collect and analyse such data) to ensure that any technical evaluation of water data is based on sound and informed judgement, which in turn allows timely business decision support to procure improvement and better business resilience.

Quantification through developing a water footprint can create a more holistic picture for a business by combining both internal and external factors that are pertinent to its overall operation and security. Water footprinting is a way to quantify water consumption and to understand where, in any given scenario, the most significant water use and impact occurs, and from which a plan of action can be developed. This may relate to the life cycle of a product, a facility, a supply chain, or land management scenario etc. Water footprints can be determined in a variety of ways, such as water consumed per company, per facility, per product, per kilogram of product, per unit of energy etc.

Services provided include the following

• Advice on legislation and future strategic considerations
• Water audits and site water balances
• Selecting relevant data and setting benchmarks from which future water targets can be set
• Integration of water, energy and food risk factors & opportunities
• Sensitivity analysis to understand magnitude of risk and probability of occurrence
• Contingency plan development to respond to risk
• Scenario analysis, examining how water scarcity and climate change modelling could potentially affect the long term resilience of a business, its profitability, reputation and implications to food safety, right through to consumer demand.
• Developing a green infrastructure approach