The global production and consumption of food, clothes and other goods has a major influence on society’s climate and water challenges, and its solutions. The water used within farms, factories and mines, and for growing, extracting and processing raw materials can cause pollution and resource degradation and depletion. This means less water of poorer quality and, therefore, greater vulnerability to climate change, drought, disease and conflict. The ‘embedded’ water, or ‘water footprint’ of consumer goods and international trade links consumer and producer economies, and provides us with a new and exciting opportunity for positive change.

Our water footprints shape water and climate security for millions of people. This influence can be negative where water is used irresponsibly, or it can be a force for progress. A fair water footprint is about people, communities, companies, investors, civil society and governments working together to trigger positive change by ensuring that everything we produce and consume ‘does no harm’ –  but instead ‘does good’ for water security, climate resilience and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. 

A fair water footprint means:

• Zero pollution
• Sustainable and equitable withdrawal and water use
• Full access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene for workers
• Working with and protecting nature
• Planning for droughts and floods.

This short animation captures in two minutes what a fair water footprint is, and why it is important. Note that fair water footprints differ from carbon footprints in that they are all about sustainable and responsible use of water, not necessarily reduction of water use.

Without radically improved water management, our vulnerability to disease, conflict, climate change and an intensifying cycle of flooding and drought events will continue to escalate, condemning current and future generations to almost continual catastrophe. Economic activity will be severely constrained (according to the World Bank, by up to 6% of GDP annually), and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity will continue to see the most rapid rates of decline. Marginalised communities, women and those already in poverty will be affected most severely.

Shared water security – through good water governance, adequate investment and widespread water stewardship by all water users – is the solution that will provide the resilience needed to respond to the climate emergency and the nature crisis, and to facilitate social justice, disease control and low-carbon growth trajectories.

Time is running out. As the climate emergency escalates, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the way we interact with water and to harness the power of our water footprints – as individuals, companies and countries – to ensure that they drive fair, sustainable and resilient water use. Investors and multinational corporations influence as much as 70% of the world’s water use and employ one in five of the global workforce. Much of this use and many of these workers are in the catchments, communities and cities that face the greatest water and climate challenges on earth. The opportunity to harness that reach and influence for good is therefore significant.

This initiative builds on work by many organisations and individuals over the past two decades, on virtual water, water footprint, climate adaptation, water stewardship, corporate disclosure and governance. It owes particular credit to landmark research by Professor Tony Allen, winner of the Stockholm Water Prize in 2008, and Professor Arjen Hoekstra and his team at the Water Footprint Network. It also draws on the practice of stewardship: there are multiple inspiring examples from around the world of what can be achieved when companies and investors purposefully seek to use water responsibly and contribute to shared water security and climate resilience.

Many of the tools and techniques for ensuring fair water footprints have been developed and tested. The priority now is to scale these up to establish water stewardship as the business norm globally, through bold leadership and stronger market, financial and regulatory incentives. Future global summits such as the COP climate talks provide us with political opportunities to make rapid progress and harness the high-level commitment needed for this transition. They offer breakthrough moments where these concepts and practices on fair water footprints can fulfil their potential to accelerate delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to shape a more resilient, sustainable, just and water-secure world.

At present this work is shared between CDP, Chatham House, the International Institute for Environment and Development, Water Witness International, and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. A Programme Management Unit (PMU) manages the day-to-day functioning of the declaration delivery programme. The PMU:

• Provides evidence of best practice and innovation on fair water footprints and
  supports signatories to the declaration to implement their commitments
• Supports a community of practice for signatories in which to share experiences and discuss and resolve thematic and technical issues
• Supports diplomatic efforts to grow the signatory community through outreach to partners and other initiatives.

This initiative has nothing to do with privatisation of water services. It is about engaging various stakeholders – companies and business sectors that use large amounts of water, the investors, and customers behind them, as well as the governments that regulate them – to ensure that we are all doing all we can to ensure the equitable, resilient, and sustainable use of water.

Engaging the private sector in social and environmental governance is not without risk because of the unequal distribution of power and resources between stakeholders, and the privileged access to decision making and resources that can result. As a result, a central and critical feature of the Fair Water Footprints initiative is adherence to the Principles of Responsible Corporate Engagement in Water Policy and Integrity Guidelines for Water Stewardship Initiatives which provide for credible and accountable partners, working towards demonstrable ‘public good’ outcomes, through inclusive and transparent processes.