Water Footprinting

 
 

Supporting documents


  1. 1.Water Risks and Opportunities for Financial Institutions (Water Risk and Financial Institutions.pdf)

  2. 2.Economic Decision Frameworks for Water (Charting_Our_Water_Future_Full_Report_001.pdf)

  3. 3.Water Scarcity and Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses and Investors (Ceres_Water_Report_0209.pdf)

  4. 4.Economics of Climate Adaptation (Swiss_RE Economics of Climate Adaption.pdf)

  5. 5.Climate Change and the Global Water Crisis: What Businesses Need to Know and Do (UN Global Impact.pdf)

  6. 6.Valuation of the Hydrosphere Business Opportunity (Lux Research Water State of the Market.pdf)




supporting organizations


The Water Footprint Network (link)

WWF Water Footprint (link)



students

Vinayak Machanda, MBA

Edward Grubb, MBA



PRESENTATIONS

  1. 1. LimnoTech Status Report (Report out to LTI 12_09 v4.pdf)

  2. 2.Business of Sustainability (Business of Sustainability Suzhou.pdf)

  3. 3.Water Footprinting (Dalian University of Technology, link)

 
 

Water footprint of a business: The water footprint of a business consists of two components: the direct water use by the producer (for production and for supporting activities) and the indirect water use (the water use in the producer’s supply chain).


Why Businesses Should care:  The impact of water scarcity and inconsistent or impaired water quality carries a number of business risks, including financial risk (market valuation, reinsurance, project finance, and corporate bond rating), reputational risk, regulatory risk, and risk of business interruption.  These risks propagate across the entire value chain of the corporation, and impact the separate value chain segments (from raw materials to end consumer) differently.


Research Challenges & Needs: A substantial focus of the water footprint research has been in the area of generating the blue, green, and grey water volumes consumed in the value chain.  The challenge is to translate the numbers into the economics of business risk (see previous paragraph).  Since businesses, the financial services industry, and government have different perspectives on these risks, and the value they may entail, investment decisions and policy designs to address water footprint issues will be out of synch.  Our research seeks to:


  1. BulletMap financial business risks against industry value chains

  2. BulletIdentify financial services industry business opportunities addressing water risks

  3. BulletAnalyze technology opportunities addressing business water risk needs

  4. BulletIdentify and analyze early stage entrepreneurial ventures addressing water footprint needs


Business Partners:  Our main business partner is LimnoTech (link), an environmental services firm with offices in Ann Arbor and  Washington DC, as well as a number of field offices.  LimnoTech has been contracted by WWF to conduct water footprints across the value chains of beverage companies (e.g. Coca Cola), and to conduct water footprint training and business consulting for IFC in India.  Other partnerships have been developed with WRI (link), the World Bank, and institutions/organizations in China.

Business Valuation of Water Footprints