Tips for Reducing Your Water Footprint

WARRENDALE, Penn.—More than 90 percent of the world's fresh water is consumed in the agricultural and industrial sectors. It takes roughly 20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a 2-liter bottle of soda and about 5,000 gallons of water to grow a day's food for a family of four. To reduce water footprint, increase efficiencies, and save money, Siemens Water Technologies recommends the five easy tips for factory and manufacturing facility owners and operators:

1. Do Your Homework. Annually review your water management strategy from intake to discharge. By doing this audit, you can identify ways to reduce your water footprint immediately. In addition, there are technologies available that offer sustainable solutions for treating water to virtually any specification. Be sure to continue to monitor your usage closely.

2. Treat Water as a Valuable Resource. Treated water isn't free. It takes energy and technological resources to treat water. Statistics show that by 2030 almost 50 percent of the world's population will be living in areas of high water stress. So, the more tightly managed the water usage, the better.

3. Reuse and Recycle. Capturing, treating and recycling water during the manufacturing process can reduce water use by millions of gallons per year, and save money. This can be achieved by looking at areas like your boiler feed water, utility water, or, in the example of a major beverage manufacturer, water used in packaging preparation: One customer was able to put new processes in place to re-capture and treat the water they were using for bottle washing, ultimately saving 25,000 gallons of water a day.

4. Reduce Waste. An effective water management strategy can help reduce waste and discharge, while also helping to help to meet regulatory requirements. Even taking a closer look at wastewater and identifying other uses within the facility can result in great savings. For example, a major manufacturer recovered its waste stream and reused its feedwater, enabling it to recover more than 52 million gallons of water per year. 

5. Consider the Water/Energy Link. Energy costs account for nearly 30 percent of the operational costs at water treatment facilities. Technology advancements such as better automation, reuse technologies and waste-to-energy technologies can mean greater energy efficiencies. A major brewing company installed technology, which by converting its waste to energy, was able to save the equivalent of $500,000 in energy costs per year at a single location. So don't just look at the water use ... follow the electricity usage as well.

More information on reducing your water footprint can be found at Siemens.