WaSChBerR - Water Use in the Supply Chain and Considering Regional Risks

Project Manager

Prof. Dr. Mario Schmidt

Project Duration

2009 - 2012

External Source

FHprofUnt - Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

Project Description

The aim of this project is to develop an indicator system in order to cumulate regionalized water intensities of actors along global supply chains. Thereby not only the water consumption but also the water scarcities at the different places of water abstraction are taken into account by using established water stress indices for spatial weighting of water use. The latter is important for assessing water-related business risks and impacts of water use which depend mainly on local water availability.

The indicator system follows a different approach than other water footprint methodologies. For calculating the cumulative water intensity, the water use of the company is set in proportion to the company’s turnover. Hence, the monetary value of the goods produced is used as a reference value and not the weight of products. This approach has the advantage that not only the water performance of the same enterprise could be tracked over time, but also comparisons between different companies would be facilitated.

Further advantage is achieved by establishing a recursive system in which each supplier passes on his specific data just to the next actor in the chain. In order to calculate its regionalized cumulative water intensity (RCWI), a company must merely know its own water use, the prices and volumes of its purchased precursors, the RCWI of its direct suppliers and the water stress level of its production site. The timeintensive analysis of water use and water impacts throughout the whole supply chain is not longer necessary, as the indirect water footprints are passed on from each supplier to the customer – in the form of the RCWI.

Project Members

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Bettina Joa, Dipl.-Kffr. Stephanie Görlach, Dipl.-Ing. Heidi Hottenroth

Project Partners

Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

Systain Consulting GmbH Hamburg

M+W Germany GmbH

Publication

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Dissertationen

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URL

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