🌱 3 steps to start getting to grips with your water footprint
+ good news from HURR, Performance Food Group and more
Happy Monday! Every Monday we suit up and get serious - digging into a climate topic, rounding up the past week’s Good(s) News and sharing updates from across FTF, so you’re never out of the loop.
I don’t know about you, but we at FTF are getting more and more worried about water… and we’re not just talking about the usual hydration concerns. If you’re in a country or area that has more rainy days then dry in the year, then you might not think about water scarcity as a problem, but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore. 25% of the world’s population is facing water stress and scarcity. At the same time, news sources in the UK are constantly reporting new cases of water pollution in the our rivers and seas.
That’s why we asked Elspeth, Senior Consultant & Adviser at Bemari and general water wizard, to write a piece for us to help you get to grips with your water footprint.
Let’s dive in…
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> In Focus
Don’t Let Your Business Dry Out: How to Start Measuring Your Water Footprint
by Elspeth Alexander
Historically, freshwater has been considered a cheap input with little financial impact. It just falls out the sky and/or comes out of the ground, right?
However, as systemic climate change, water pollution and over-abstraction are reducing our global supply of available freshwater, governments, regulators and investors are starting to wake up to the vital importance of strong water stewardship within corporate value chains.
So how can businesses start to understand their corporate water risks and impacts?
1. Understand the business risks associated with high water dependency
It’s important to start understanding how water dependency impacts your business, otherwise engaging with water stewardship can feel a ‘nice to have’, rather than a critical, strategic exercise.
The types of risks associated with water can broadly be broken down into three categories (see below).
2. Understand where in your business’ value chain you’re dependent on water.
Start by mapping your value chain.
What do you buy and from whom? Where do they buy your inputs from? What are the inputs made from, how are they made?
Once you’ve done this, you can start to map:
Where water is needed as an input or output across your value chain: do your customers require freshwater to use your products (e.g. cosmetics, personal care products etc.)? Does your business rely on metal or agricultural products?
And in what quantities: does your business rely on steel or critical minerals that require large quantities of water to process?
REMEMBER: If you are a digital professional services company (or similar) you still have water inputs and outputs - they’re just hidden within the supply chains of the devices and digital services you use!
It’s important to not just focus on your operations here, as your water impacts & risks are ALWAYS going to be higher upstream in your value chain.
3. Understand the geographies within which your value chain is using water intensely.
Two key difference between water impacts and greenhouse gas emissions are:
Water is a valuable INPUT: people and nature need freshwater in sufficient quality and quantities to survive.
Context: the amount of water available to people and nature varies across the globe and business usage does not align with where the greatest availability of water is.
If your water intensive business activities are occurring in regions of high water stress, you are likely contributing to the water scarcity of local people and nature.
To understand where your hotspots, try to obtain as granular locational information as possible (ideally an address, but a sub-region or country also works) on where water intensive activities are occurring in your supply chain.
Input this information into the WWF Water Risk Filter to understand the water stressed nature of the location.
REMEMBER: if you can’t get this data then conduct deck-based research on the most likely locations where the water intensive activities are occurring.
> Follow up with…
Guide: Business & Water Day Zero Toolkit, Bemari
Impact Report: See how Faith in Nature reports on their water footprint in their 22/23 impact report
> Last week in consumer goods x climate…
The Good(s) News
»Up and coming brands
🎯 HURR, the circular fashion platform, announced they are teaming up with Deliveroo to offer a luxury fashion rental service that will deliver party dresses to customers in London.
🎯 Tri-Wall Circular announced the launch of its YOYOBin Adjustable, said to be the first modular, foldable plastic container specifically designed to address the needs of the automotive and industrial supply chain. This helps to streamline operations to minimise inventory and handling requirements in the supply chain.
»Bigger organisations
⭐️ Performance Food Group announced their new hybrid burger made with beef and jackfruit, allowing their consumers to enjoy the taste of meat while improving nutrition and reducing their environmental footprint from meat production.
⭐️ Lidl Hungary announced that they have reached a milestone in their new return system where the number of plastic bottles, aluminium cans for drinks and soft drinks and glass bottles returned has exceeded 150 million.
»Industry wins
⚡ Universal Sustainability KPIs for the hospitality industry was launched at COP29 to guide businesses in the hospitality sector in the development and delivery of credible ESG strategies. The World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (WSHA) said this framework will help support climate action, drive economic value and align with consumer expectations.
Want good news sooner? We post our top 5 stories in our LinkedIn newsletter every Friday! If your CPG brand has good news to share, let us know.👇
> In case you missed it
Want more? Here’s what’s happening across FTF at the moment…
This week we are busy prepping for our second event at Nudie Jeans in London. Read more about the event here and grab one of the final remaining places.
We are about to pull together our highlights for the year. Help us! Reach out to Laura and let us know what your favourite issue was this year (or any other feedback)!
Want more? Hang tight for ‘The Check-Out’ this Thursday for the latest brands in our basket. In the meantime, if you have any topics that you would like us to dig into, ping us an email on info@followingthefootprints.com to say hi!
Much love,
Team FTF