23 Tips to help you Reduce Your Water Footprint

Water is one of our most precious commodities but probably because great water is so plentiful in Canada we use far more than we need to!   For instance, the average Canadian has a water footprint of 6392 liters/day which is among the highest consumption in the world!   Similar to your carbon footprint, your water footprint is “the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by an individual”.                                                                                                  .

We use three times as much as the Chinese and more than double what is used in Japan or India.   We can work on lowering our water footprint by thinking about the following tips.

 

1. On average, 10  gallons per day of your water footprint (or 14% of your indoor use) is  lost to leaks. Short of installing new water-efficient fixtures, one of   the easiest, most effective ways to cut  your footprint is by repairing leaky faucets and toilets.

 

2. If you use a low-flow showerhead, you can save 15 gallons of water  during a 10-minute shower.

 

3. Every time you shave minutes off your use of hot water, you also save energy and keep  dollars in your pocket.

 

4. It takes about 70 gallons of water to fill a bathtub, so showers are  generally the more water-efficient way to bathe.

 

5. All of those flushes can add up to nearly 20 gallons a day down the toilet. If you still have a standard toilet, which uses close to 3.5 gallons a flush, you can save by retrofitting or by putting something in your  tank that will displace some of that water, such as a brick.

 

6. Most front-loading washing machines are energy and water-efficient,  using just over 20 gallons a load, while most top-loading machines, unless they are energy-efficient, use 40 gallons per load.

 

7. Nearly 22% of indoor home water use  comes from doing laundry. Save water by making sure to adjust the settings on your machine to the proper  load size.

 

8. Dishwashing is a  relatively small part of your water footprint—less than 2% of indoor  use—but there are always ways to conserve. Using a dishwasher is actually more water efficient than hand  washing, especially if you run full loads.

 

9. Energy Star dishwashers use about 4 gallons of water per load, and even standard machines use only about 6 gallons. Hand washing generally uses about 20 gallons of water  each time for the same amount of dishes.

 

10. Nearly 60% of a person’s household  water footprint can go toward lawn and garden maintenance, so water only when necessary.

 

11. The average pool takes 22,000 gallons  of water to fill, and if you don’t cover it, hundreds of gallons of water per month can be lost due to  evaporation.

 

 

So far, that’s probably about 5% of your water footprint. Surprised? In the next section, we’ll show you that a whopping 50% or more goes to grow and process the food we eat every day. Meat, dairy, and coffee stand out as being some of the most water-intensive fare.

 

12. 338 gallons of water are used to produce one serving  (3 ounces) of beef! Think about that! The average person eats about 7 servings of beef each week.

 

13. That quarter pounder is worth more than 30 average showers. One of the easiest ways to slim    your water footprint is to eat less meat and dairy. Another way is to choose grass-fed, rather than  grain-fed, since it can take a lot of water to grow corn and other  feed crops.

 

14. Raising and  processing poultry also requires water—about 88 gallons per serving (3 ounces). The average person eats 7 servings of poultry a week.

 

15. A serving of poultry costs about 90  gallons of water to produce. There are also water costs embedded in the transportation of food (gasoline costs water to make). So, consider how  far your food has to travel, and buy  local to cut your water footprint.

 

16. It shouldn’t come as  a surprise now to learn that it takes about 108 gallons of water to produce a serving (3 ounces) of pork.    The average person eats about 6 servings of pork a week.

 

17. Pork costs water to produce, and traditional pork production, to  make your sausage, bacon, and chops, has also been the cause of some water  pollution, as pig waste runs into local water sources.

 

18. A gallon (16 cups) of milk—from a cow—requires 880  gallons of water to produce. The average person consumes a cup of milk a day.  Do you drink more or less?

 

19. On average, a vegan, a person who  doesn’t eat meat or dairy, indirectly  consumes nearly 600 gallons of water per day less than a person who eats the average diet.

 

20. A cup of coffee takes 55 gallons of water to make, with most of that H₂O  used to grow the coffee beans.

 

Water is used to produce the fuels that keep us moving and our planet humming. A gallon of gasoline, for example, requires nearly 13 gallons of H₂O to produce. The average person relies on nearly 670 gallons of water a day just for electricity production.   Using less electricity uses less water too.

 

21. Washing a car uses about 150 gallons of water, so by washing less frequently you can cut  back your water use.

 

22. It takes about 100 gallons of water to grow and process a single pound of   cotton, and the average person goes through about 35 pounds of new    cotton material each year. Do you really need that additional T-shirt?

 

One last thought about water consumption in an area where you usually wouldn”t consider.

 

23. The water required to create your laptop could wash nearly 70 loads of    laundry in a  standard machine.