ES Water Footprint

Gavin Soccorso
8 April 15

Components of your total water footprint

Contribution of individual food category towards the total water footprint

47
cereal

554
meat

5
859
Food

90
204
Domestic

vegetable

fruit

dairy

40
418
Industrial

1
1481
Total

Stimulant

Fat

25

8
egg

sugar

74
Others

Fig 1a
Fig 2a

Contribution of individual food category towards the total water footprint

Components of your total water footprint

31

554

cereal meat

Fig 1b

16

vegetable

36

fruit dairy

27

17

65

Stimulant Fat sugar egg Others

760

65

491

1316

Food

Domestic

Industrial

Total

Fig 2b

My total water foot print amounts to 1481 cubic ft meters/year

before adjustment.

My total water footprint after adjustment amounts to 1316 cubic ft

meters/yr after reasonable adjustment.

Based on the questions and the thought I had given to the responses I feel confident
that I can greatly reduce my water footprint more easily than I first had thought.
Water usage (And abuse) is an ecologic problem that can easily be averted by
simple alteration of lifestyle and simply but being more cognizant of what you do.
During my answering of the questions I did note that a lot of my water usage was
going down the drain during periods of pause doing the dishes, brushing my teeth
or taking a shower. It is not out of necessity that I run the tap during periods of
pause, but rather lack of caring or neglect to pay attention to what I am doing in
between actually using the water. This alone can be a simple fix by simply putting
forth more effort into becoming more aware of what I am doing in between water
usage. It is not that difficult to simply turn the tap off until I am ready for it again,
and I think this would be a very easy fix I can start on today. You dont realize how
big an impact something that simple can have until you see it in a visual or
statistical spectrum. Another area of note is my food usage and the impact that has
on my footprint. I never really gave much thought into the impact of using things
that require water have back at the source. My consumption of meat is indeed
hefty but the resources needed to provide me with such quantity have the largest
impact of all. My consumption of meat mainly stems from it being my choice of
protein. This is yet another easy fix as several of the vegetarian sources I partake in
do contain very high amounts of protein. It would be a simple lifestyle change to
consume more soy and nut protein and limit my intake of meat. I can only imagine
the resources needed to grow, sustain and prepare a meat source for consumption.
I believe that water alone (feeding the animal as well as growing its food) can be a
huge chunk of the pie so to speak. My intake of dairy while not nearly as great as
my meat intake is still a factor. Since dairy stems from the same animal that my

primary meat source is I assume that the water intake/usage would be even greater
as the milk producers are kept alive a lot longer than those marked for
consumption. Based on the graphs it seems to me that while certain adjustments
must be made to lighten my footprint, they are simple and worthwhile.
After making those simple adjustments mentioned above and calculating them back
in my footprint dropped drastically more than 1000 less cubic feet. Those
adjustments to the calculation were very simple and livable changes that I can
make and still be able to have a sense of personal lifestyle. Even though my meat
consumption is still a bit high you can see the contrast between the before and after
graphs of set A and set B respectively.