After a short development, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published a water footprint standard to help businesses and other organizations measure their potential environmental impact of water use and pollution.
The new International Standard, ISO 14046:2014 entitled Environmental management – Water footprint – Principles, requirements and guidelines, is based on a life cycle assessment and can help to inform organisations in their:
■Assessment of the magnitude of potential environmental impacts related to water,
■Identification of ways to reduce those impacts,
■Facilitating water efficiency and optimization of water management at product, process and organizational levels and
■Providing scientifically consistent and reliable information for reporting water footprint results that can be tracked over time.
In addition, it recognises geographical and time-based dimensions that may affect the water quantity and changes in water quality.
A copy of the new International Standard to join the ISO 14000 family can be obtained from ISO at http://bit.ly/1sRiEb9 or from your local National Standards Body.