ENGG941

Sustainability for
Engineers, Scientists
and Professionals
Dr. Mohsin Nawaz
mohsin@uow.edu.au
Building 4, Room 141

Reminder – Week 5 Lecture Quiz

• The quiz is in Week 5, on Tuesday 26th

March 2024 during the lecture.
• The quiz begins at 9:15 am sharp.
• The duration of the quiz is 60 minutes.
• The quiz is OPEN BOOK and Lecture slides,
and Tutorial solutions are allowed ONLY.
• Internet browsing is strictly PROHIBITED.
• The question paper is to be returned with
the answer-book.
• The format will be 20% MCQs and 80%
Numerical questions.
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 Week 3 Review
ENGG941

• Greenhouse gases & climate change

• Carbon footprint calculation

– 3 types of emission scopes (direct, indirect, other)
– Emission Factors
– Global Warming Potential Index
– CO2 Equivalent

Week 4 Outline
ENGG941

• Water Footprint

– Water availability, supply and consumption

– Water footprint calculation

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 Week 4
Water availability, supply
& consumption

Water scarcity

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 Renewable vs non-renewable

• Non-renewable resources are stock limited

• Renewable resources are flow limited

• Water exhibits both

characteristics:
– renewable in general
– Can be non-
renewable in some
locations

Global water resources

• Only 0.3% of water

is renewable fresh
water

• Location?
• Access?
• Quality?

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 Peak ecological water

Peak water

• We will never run out of water. But...

• Where it is non-renewable, we will run into

stock constraint.
• Will run up again flow limits which are a
combination of natural and economical
constraints
• We are increasingly hitting (exceeding)
ecological limits on a localised basis

• There is no substitute for water

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 Peak water – A sustainability issue

Human extraction,
Available usage and disposal
water activities Sinks
resources

Flow limits
• Natural;
• Economic
constraints
Stock Ecological limits
constraint • Capacity for sinks
to absorb
pollutants

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Peak water – Implications

• Agriculture is water limited

• Risks to companies that depend on water
are real and growing; and
• Opportunities exists in the water sector for
companies, investors, and public.

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 Risks associated with PW

• Increase competition for water; concern over

reliability
• New limits on access to markets/sites in
water-short regions
• Increase difficulty in getting/keeping water
permits
• Higher cost of treatment, quality control &
distribution; new expenditure
• Regulatory uncertainty

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Water related opportunities

• The water sector is growing at 10-15%

annually

• Significant growth in some regions

– In Australia: all major capital cities now have
seawater desalination and/or water recycling
schemes

• Government incentives

• Water Accounting is essential for

management

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 Key message
• There is a real water crisis
– In different forms and different places
• We have past the point of “ecological peak
water” in many regions
– Cape Town, South Africa
– Bangalore, India

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Water resource supply solutions

Coastal reservoir
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 Australian water consumption

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Perth Gold Coast

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Perth 1

Sydney Adelaide Melbourne

The Big Six Australian Desalination Plants $A12b in investment

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 Singapore NEWater initiative

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Orange County CA –
Ground Water Recharge
Kraemer Basin
Santa Ana River
Fullerton

Future Mid-Basin
Injection/Recharge Santiago Creek

GWR Pipeline
Huntington Groundwater Basin
Beach Seawater
Intrusion
Barrier Pumping
Pacific Ocean
OCWD Facilities
Irvine
OCSD
Advanced Treatment
Water Treatment Facilities
Plant Ocean N
Outfall
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 Week 4
Water footprint calculation

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Water footprint of a product

• Total volume of fresh water used directly or

indirectly to produce the product.

• Considers water consumption and pollution

in all steps of the production chain.

• Alternative terms
– ‘Virtual water content’
– ‘Embedded water’

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 The three water footprints
• Blue water footprint
– Fresh surface or groundwater

• Green water footprint

– Precipitation on land that does not recharge
groundwater
– It is stored or temporarily stays in soil or vegetation

• Grey water footprint

– Indicates the degree of freshwater pollution
– Expressed in terms of the freshwater volume required
to assimilate (dilute) the existing load of pollutants

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 Components of water footprint
Direct WF Indirect WF

consumption
Green water footprint Green water footprint

Water
Non-consumptive
Water use Blue water footprint Blue water footprint
(return flow)

pollution
Water
Grey water footprint Grey water footprint
The traditional
statistics
on water use
[Hoekstra, 2008]

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Agricultural irrigation
Example

• Irrigation requirement =
crop water requirement – effective rainfall
• Made up of green and blue water footprint

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 Grey water footprint
Reminder

• Included in footprint calculation whenever there is

pollutant discharge
• “Calculated as the volume of water that is required
to dilute pollutants to such an extent that the
quality of the water remains above agreed water
quality standards.”

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Cotton seed oil,

Production chain 0.16
0.47
Cotton seed oil
1.07
1.00 refined
cotton
Hulling/ 0.51 Cotton seed
Cotton seed
extraction 0.33 cake

0.63
0.18 0.10
0.20
Cotton linters
Harvesting
Cotton plant Seed-cotton Ginning
0.05
0.35 0.10
Garnetted stock
0.82

1.00 Cotton, not Carding/

Cotton lint 1.00 carded or combed Spinning

0.95 Cotton, carded or

0.99 combed (yarn)

Knitting/
0.95
weaving
0.05
0.99 0.10

Grey fabric Yarn waste

Wet processing

1.00
1.00

Fabric
Legend
Finishing

0 .35 Product fraction 1.00

1.00

0 .82 Value fraction Final textile

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 [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

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[Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

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 [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

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[Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

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 [Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

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Water footprint of a nation

• Total amount of water that is used to

produce the goods and services consumed
by the inhabitants of the nation.
• National water footprint =
National water use
+ virtual water import
– virtual water export

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 Water embedded in imported products
3,500 GL/year
Water embedded in exported products
7,500 GL/year

Water managed in Australia

24,000 GL/year

Net water exported

4,000 GL/year
Source Lenzen and Foran 2001
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National water accounting framework

Internal External Water
water + water = footprint Consumption
footprint footprint
+ + +
Water use Virtual water Virtual
for export + import for re- = water Export
export export

= = =

Water use Virtual Virtual

+ =
within water water
country import budget
Production

Import

The traditional
statistics
on water use
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 Regional virtual water balances
(only agricultural trade)

Arrows show trade flows >10 Gm3/yr

[Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008]

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Water footprint of a business

• Operational water footprint

– the direct water use by the producer – for
producing, manufacturing or for supporting
activities.
• Supply-chain water footprint
– the indirect water use in the producer’s supply
chain.

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 Why businesses are interested

• Corporate social responsibility

• Corporate image/marketing perspective
• Business risks related to
– Freshwater shortage for own operations
– Freshwater shortage in supply chain anticipate
regulatory control

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The virtual water chain

Virtual Virtual Virtual

water water water
flow Food flow flow
Farmer processer Retailer Consumer

green grey blue grey blue grey blue grey

and water water water water water water water
blue use use use
water
use

[Hoekstra, 2008]

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 The virtual water chain

Virtual Virtual Virtual

water water water
flow Food flow flow
Farmer processer Retailer Consumer

green grey blue grey blue grey blue grey

and water water water water water water water
blue use use use
water
use

Indirect WF Direct WF

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The virtual water chain

Virtual Virtual Virtual

water water water
flow Food flow flow
Farmer processer Retailer Consumer

green grey blue grey blue grey blue grey

and water water water water water water water
blue use use use
water
use

Supply chain WF Operational WF End-use WF of a

product

The traditional statistics

on corporate water use

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 The virtual water chain

Virtual Virtual Virtual

water water water
flow Food flow flow
Farmer processer Retailer Consumer

green grey blue grey blue grey blue grey

and water water water water water water water
blue use use use
water
use

Supply chain WF Operational WF End-use WF of a product

The traditional statistics

on corporate water use

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Reducing water footprint

• Blue water footprint

– Water recycling and reuse

• Grey water footprint reduced by:

– Wastewater treatment

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 Water vs Carbon Footprint

Water Footprint Carbon Footprint

• spatial and temporal • no spatial / temporal
dimension dimension
• actual, locally specific • global average values
values • supply-chain included
• always referring to full only in ‘scope 3 carbon
supply-chain accounting’
• focus on reducing own • many efforts focused on
water footprint (water offsetting (units are
use units are not interchangeable)
interchangeable)

Water footprint and carbon footprint are

complementary tools.
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http://waterfootprint.org/en/

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 Week 4 Summary

• Peak water & consumption patterns

• Stock & flow limited water
• Blue, green & grey water footprint
– Direct vs indirect consumption
– ‘Virtual water’ or ‘embedded water’

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Weeks 1 – 4 review
Week Lecturer Topic Activity
Introduction to Sustainable Development:
The sustainability imperative; Sustainable Assignment
1
development goals; Environmental Grouping
economics.
A systems approach to sustainability
analysis: Sustainability metrics; Ecological Assignment given
2
footprint; Water-energy-food nexus. (due in week 7)

Dr. Carbon footprint: Climate change; Emission

3 Mohsin calculation and reduction; Deforestation;
Nawaz Carbon neutrality.
Water footprint: Water availability, supply
4 and consumption; Water accounting;

Life Cycle Assessment: Design for the

environment; Green chemistry; Multiple
5 Criteria Analysis (MCA); Environmental Lecture Quiz 1
impact assessment methodologies.

Wk 6-13 (see subject outline)

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 THANK YOU!

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