When you rise in the morning and go through your daily ritual of preparing for the day, do you consider the amount of water you will use in the next twenty-four hours? Maybe you remember to shut off the facet when brushing your teeth, but do you consider the amount of water needed to produce toothpaste? (Photo by Mazwebs, Stock.Xchng)
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By Mike Brandolino
When you rise in the morning and go through your daily ritual of preparing for the day, do you consider the amount of water you will use in the next twenty-four hours? Maybe you remember to shut off the facet when brushing your teeth, but do you consider the amount of water needed to manufacture toothpaste?
Or let”s say you go to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. You fill the pot with water and wait for your morning fuel. Did you know that a cup of coffee requires about 37 gallons of water to produce? Most of the water is used during the agricultural production process, which many of us casino don’t consider when filling up.
This is quite an enormous amount of water to produce a spoonful of ground coffee. To make a full 12-cup pot of coffee, it takes 444 gallons of water! Who would have thought?
We use a lot of water every day, whether directly or indirectly. Not only do we use water showering, shaving, cooking, and doing laundry, but just about everything we buy and consume requires water in its production process.
This may be hard to visualize, which is why The Water Footprint Network created a water footprint calculator. This tool helps users see the impact they are having on the world’s water supply by using the same metaphor as a carbon footprint. Water is being used much faster than it can be regenerated by the Earth, and it is important to think of it as a precious and scarce resource.
So now that you know where you are using the most water, what are some steps you’ve taken to shrink this footprint? Share with other Sierra Club Green Home readers in the comments section of this article, and on our Facebook page!
For related article, see:
How Much Water Is Your Home Wasting?
© 2012 SCGH, LLC.
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