How do I carry that 34 gallons of water that comes with my morning Starbucks?

In a Grist article this week, Sarah Laskow (@slaskow) reported that the water bottling industry was touting the efficiency of their measurement that every litre of bottled water required only 1.39 litres to be used at the bottling plant to produce the 1 litre product…not including the water required to produce the bottle which can be an additional 3 to 6 litres. This weird scenario results from a concept called “embodied water” or “embedded water”. When we manufacture or process most products, we use a certain amount of water to support the operations that deliver the product or service. This is true for energy as well, and we often speak about the "embodied energy" of a product or service as well.

Water's status as a recyclable resource makes it particularly useful in our society. Not only does it provide us with health and safety for and within our bodies, but its ease of control and stability make it useful for transmitting waste, for powering generators by turning it into steam, and for cleaning. Add to this the work it does in growing plants for food and temperature regulation, and its no wonder it ranks up there with air, heat, and light as one of the primary needs of society.

All of this benefit, however, means that we have strong demand for water among competing interests, and at different scales. Farmers need water to grow crops, power plants need water to produce electricity, and people need water to maintain health. Even though it is recyclable, the instantaneous demand for water amongst food, energy, and health can stress local water supplies.

So how much water does it take to produce some of our most common products? You can get more information at www.waterfootprint.org, but here are a few highlights:

• A slice of bread requires 11 gallons of water throughout the process of growth to shelf.
• Powering my Macbook Air for a year requires 20 gallons of water for the electricity.
• A cup of coffee requires 34 gallons of water throughout the process from growth to counter.
• A cucumber requires 108 gallons of water from growth to shelf.
• A single hamburger requires around 660 gallons of water from growth to service.
• A ream of paper (500 sheets) requires 1,320 gallons of water from growth to shelf.
• A pound of chocolate requires 3,170 gallons of water from growth to shelf.

As we move forward as a globalized world, unless we want to create conflict around another resource, we need to find ways to minimize or eliminate water use in manufacturing, to examine our food systems and look at market tools that can make sure the right type of crops make their way from seed to table, and to increase awareness of the stress that this consumption will put on our lives and economy.  Last summer, droughts and heat in Iowa and western Illinois resulted in historically high withdrawls from underground aquifers.  This demand from electricity generation, agriculture, industry, and personal use pitted several of our basic needs against each other.  Unless we find smart ways to move forward, we ill invariably have to limit our quality of life in one way or another.  

If we are to thrive, we need to use our brains...and not just to figure out how to hold 34 gallons in a reusable mug.