Water efficiency alone is not an effective water stewardship strategy.
Why?
Because the majority of your water footprint is not from your direct water usage.
We understand why businesses often start their water stewardship journey focused on water efficiency: water usage at one’s own facilities is where a business has the most control and influence.
However effective water stewardship requires businesses to go further than their facility boundaries and understand their water risks and impacts across a sites’ wider catchment and across the business supply chain.
Take clothes for example:
- 80% of water consumed in clothing production is in the production and processing of raw materials.
- 75% of global cotton production relies on irrigation
- The largest cotton producing country is China (26% global production)
- 78.6% of China's cotton is grown in the Tarim River Basin (Xinjiang province) where irrigation accounts for 95% of water usage and is the primary factor leading to the Basin's 'extremely high' water stress
'But we just buy our cotton from a wholesaler' we hear you say.
'We have no control over where the cotton is grown and anyway we need our cotton at a certain price point and can't afford to change to suppliers with higher water standards'.
You need to understand your dependencies on extremely stressed water basins, to understand your own financial exposure
In 2022 water stress (droughts and floods) in major cotton-producing regions and their subsequent supply chains, led to a global increase in cotton prices, with some reports indicating a 30% spike.
Another report suggests that a 1% increase in costs from drought would see a 3% decline in operating profit for a typical apparel brand.
Your business is not getting the full picture of it's exposure to water risk by just focusing on direct water efficiency.
You control how much cotton you buy (even if it's in the guise of uniforms) and how efficiently you use this fabric.
Do you require your work force to wear a uniform that is rebranded every year and for every new employee to buy a whole new set?
Or does your uniform stay the same from year to year and you require employees to return it before leaving employment and then it's washed ready for new employees?
You control whether you buy virgin or recycled cotton.
1 kg of virgin cotton can require ~10,000 litres of water to produce.
Recycled cotton bypasses this water-intensive cultivation process, with one study suggesting that for each kg of recycled cotton fibre, 2,116 litres of water are saved.
When a business only focuses on water efficiency, it is not gaining a holistic understanding of its water risks and impacts.
It is important to remember that even if you do not have direct control over the volume of water or quality of wastewater in your supply chain, there are actions you can take to reduce your risk exposure and impacts.
If you would like to find out more about how your business can contribute to stronger water stewardship, why not reach out to us at hello@bemari.co.uk
You have come to the place for thought leadership.
