Calculating Your Water Footprint

Here’s an eye-opening statistic: that mid-day cup of coffee you were about to grab took 37 gallons of water to produce. If your lunch today is a hamburger, that’s another 634 six gallons. Many of the foods we eat and the products we use are much more water intensive than we might realize. From irrigation to assembly to transportation, nearly every step of a supply chain uses water.

In fact, only 6 percent of the water Americans consume actually comes from household use like dishwashers and laundry. So how do we use the other 94 percent? Arjen Hoekstra wants both consumers and corporations to know where the rest of that water goes. He’s the scientific director at the Water Footprint Network and Professor of Water Management at the University of Twente the Netherlands. He joins us from his home in the Netherlands as part of our “next green thing” series.

Calculate Your Water Footprint

Mother Jones: What's Your Water Footprint?

(Photo by Keith Barlow via Flickr/Creative Commons)