Exclusive: WSP Environmental to launch water footprint tool

Green consultancy WSP Environmental is poised to launch a new service designed to help firms measure the end-to-end water footprint of their operations and products

The service, which is modelled on the company's existing carbon footprinting service, is on track to be launched by the end of next month and will aim to provide firms with an overview of how much water are they are responsible through their own operations, their supply chain and the downstream use of their products.

David Symons, director at the company, said that in addition to showing firms which elements of a product's lifecycle account for the most energy use the new service would also help firms prioritise water-saving initiatives.

"Unlike carbon the impact of water use depends on where you are using it," he explained. "So the new toolkit doesn't just look at how much water you are using, it also looks at whether you are using it in water stressed areas and helps firms decide where they should target their efforts."

The new service follows the launch last year of an online environmental footprinting tool for product designers designed to help them assess whether their products are compliant with the EU's impending Energy-using Products (EuP) directive.

Under the directive, the first phase of which is due to come into effect from the start of next year, electrical products such as TVs and DVD players will be able to draw no more than one watt when in stand-by mode.

Symons said that WSP's new EcoflyOnline site allowed designers to quickly gain an overview of their products environmental footprint and guidance on whether or not it will comply with the EuP requirements.

"It is essentially a database that designers put the bill of materials for their product, the operating assumptions, stand-by power use and life expectancy into," he explained. "It then calculates the end-to-end carbon, water and waste footprint and whether or not it is compliant."

He added that the company was now working on an expanded version of the service that similarly allows designers of non-electrical products to gain an insight into their product's potential environmental footprint and where they could achieve carbon savings.