ABSTRACT
Public debates about water footprint are sometimes quickly narrowed down to a discussion about the need for a water label on products. Some people like the idea of a label for sustainable water use and argue for the necessity of properly informing consumers and giving them a fair choice. However, there are people who dislike the idea of yet another label, who question whether providing the water footprint as just a number on the label of a product is informative, and who doubt the effectiveness of labels anyhow. I have often been asked whether I am in favour of a water label for products and, if so, what sort of label. As you will understand in the course of this chapter, I am very much in favour of product transparency, which is a much broader idea than product labelling. I also see the usefulness in developing a water label: not one that just shows the water footprint as a number – which can be nice for awareness raising, not beyond that – but one that shows whether the product is based on good water stewardship – which can be a basis for conscious consumer choice. Before talking about product transparency and more specifically about product labels, I would like to make a step back and reflect on the broader context. The overarching goal in any discussion about the water footprint of things or activities should be to see how we can reduce humanity’s water footprint in order to make it sustainable and to develop priorities where and when reduction is most desired. The first logical step is therefore to discuss maximum sustainable water footprint levels per river basin and see how political agreement can be reached about setting water footprint caps per basin (Chapter 9). A second thing is to discuss the efficiency of water use in production and see how regional or global water footprint benchmarks for water-using processes and for final products can be established, in order to have a reference for farmers and companies to work towards and a reference for governments in allocating water footprint permits to users (Chapter 10). A third major discussion should be about our consumption pattern in the light of
limited freshwater availability. This discussion should focus on the fairness of the huge differences among the water footprints of people (Chapter 11). Creating product transparency is a means to enable a fruitful discussion about the water footprints of products, so that consumers know how much they contribute to the water consumption, water pollution and water scarcity in different places and so that companies know details about their purchases as well. One may argue that product transparency is important for the sake of transparency itself, but probably more important is that it is difficult to see how we can ever move towards sustainability without product transparency. The water footprint of humanity is equal to the sum of the water footprints of all final consumer goods (whereby goods are interpreted broadly, including services). Without product transparency – information about production circumstances in each step of the supply chain of a product – a consumer will never know how he or she connects to unsustainable water consumption and pollution. With relevant information, consumers can be an active player, a driving force, a partner in moving towards sustainability. In this chapter, I will first address the question of why product transparency is needed in the context of the broader goal of sustainability. Next, I will pose the question of what precisely companies should be transparent about. Subsequently, I will reflect on the issue of product transparency from different perspectives: final consumers, companies, investors and government. After that, I will discuss the issue of physical product labelling. Finally, I will reflect on the concept of good water stewardship, an umbrella term often used to refer to the overall performance of companies if it comes to their efforts in the direction of sustainable water use in their operations and supply chain and their transparency about those efforts.
