Energy Savers

 Give credit to U.S. Department of Energy

Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use

If you're trying to decide whether to invest in a more energy-efficient appliance or you'd like to determine your electricity loads, you may want to estimate appliance energy consumption.

Formula for Estimating Energy Consumption

You can use this formula to estimate an appliance's energy use:
(Wattage × Hours Used Per Day ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption
(1 kilowatt (kW) = 1,000 Watts)
Multiply this by the number of days you use the appliance during the year for the annual consumption. You can then calculate the annual cost to run an appliance by multiplying the kWh per year by your local utility's rate per kWh consumed.
Note: To estimate the number of hours that a refrigerator actually operates at its maximum wattage, divide the total time the refrigerator is plugged in by three. Refrigerators, although turned "on" all the time, actually cycle on and off as needed to maintain interior temperatures.

Examples:

Window fan:
(200 Watts × 4 hours/day × 120 days/year)  ÷  1000
= 96 kWh × 8.5 cents/kWh
= $8.16/year
Personal Computer and Monitor:
(120 + 150 Watts × 4 hours/day × 365 days/year)  ÷  1000
= 394 kWh × 8.5 cents/kWh
= $33.51/year

Wattage

You can usually find the wattage of most appliances stamped on the bottom or back of the appliance, or on its nameplate. The wattage listed is the maximum power drawn by the appliance. Since many appliances have a range of settings (for example, the volume on a radio), the actual amount of power consumed depends on the setting used at any one time.
If the wattage is not listed on the appliance, you can still estimate it by finding the current draw (in amperes) and multiplying that by the voltage used by the appliance. Most appliances in the United States use 120 volts. Larger appliances, such as clothes dryers and electric cooktops, use 240 volts. The amperes might be stamped on the unit in place of the wattage. If not, find a clamp-on ammeter—an electrician's tool that clamps around one of the two wires on the appliance—to measure the current flowing through it. You can obtain this type of ammeter in stores that sell electrical and electronic equipment. Take a reading while the device is running; this is the actual amount of current being used at that instant.
When measuring the current drawn by a motor, note that the meter will show about three times more current in the first second that the motor starts than when it is running smoothly.
Many appliances continue to draw a small amount of power when they are switched "off." These "phantom loads" occur in most appliances that use electricity, such as VCRs, televisions, stereos, computers, and kitchen appliances. Most phantom loads will increase the appliance's energy consumption a few watt-hours. These loads can be avoided by unplugging the appliance or using a power strip and using the switch on the power strip to cut all power to the appliance.

Typical Wattages of Various Appliances

Here are some examples of the range of nameplate wattages for various household appliances:

• Aquarium = 50–1210 Watts
• Clock radio = 10
• Coffee maker = 900–1200
• Clothes washer = 350–500
• Clothes dryer = 1800–5000
• Dishwasher = 1200–2400 (using the drying feature greatly increases energy consumption)
• Dehumidifier = 785
• Electric blanket- Single/Double = 60 / 100
• Fans
  • Ceiling = 65–175
  • Window = 55–250
  • Furnace = 750
  • Whole house = 240–750
• Hair dryer = 1200–1875
• Heater (portable) = 750–1500
• Clothes iron = 1000–1800
• Microwave oven = 750–1100
• Personal computer
  • CPU - awake / asleep = 120 / 30 or less
  • Monitor - awake / asleep = 150 / 30 or less
  • Laptop = 50
• Radio (stereo) = 70–400
• Refrigerator (frost-free, 16 cubic feet) = 725
• Televisions (color)
  • 19" = 65–110
  • 27" = 113
  • 36" = 133
  • 53"-61" Projection = 170
  • Flat screen = 120
• Toaster = 800–1400
• Toaster oven = 1225
• VCR/DVD = 17–21 / 20–25
• Vacuum cleaner = 1000–1440
• Water heater (40 gallon) = 4500–5500
• Water pump (deep well) = 250–1100
• Water bed (with heater, no cover) = 120–380

Energy Conservation

 Give credit to Atlanta Gas Light

 

Energy Conservation
Conserve More Energy — and Save Money — Right Now The energy choices you make are important. They affect the environment, certainly. They also affect how comfortable you are in your own home. And very importantly, they affect how much money you spend. That’s why, at Atlanta Gas Light, we want to help you to save money and energy. We believe that by helping our customers conserve energy, we all benefit.
If you’re using natural gas today, you’ve already made a good choice for the environment, your home and your finances. If you’re still thinking about adding more natural gas appliances — or switching to natural gas — you can learn more about saving money and energy at Energy Star.

You can figure out how natural gas can reduce your carbon footprint with this calculator.

And you can get started saving money and energy right now by following these tips:
Stoves

• When you’re cooking, adjust the flame to fit the bottom of the pot or pan. Turning up the flame beyond the bottom only wastes energy.
• Keep stove burner surfaces clean.
• Cover pots and pans with lids when cooking.
• Cook food at high heat to bring to temperature then reduce to complete cooking.

Sinks and Showers

• Fix leaky faucets.
• Install low volume showerheads and faucets.

Washers and Dryers

• Use a water-level setting that matches the size of the load you’re washing.
• Select the proper setting and time for the clothing type and load size.
• In your dryer, separate heavier clothes (towels, heavy cottons) from the lightweight fabrics (synthetics) for more efficient drying.
• Dry full loads, but be sure not to overload your dryer.
• Clean the dryer’s lint filter before every load.
• Don't add wet clothes during the drying cycle.
• Don't over-dry clothes. Use the automatic moisture control if your dryer has one, or select the appropriate amount of time on the automatic timer.
• Be sure the outside dryer vent is free of any obstructions and the vent cover fully opens when the dryer is in use.

Water Heaters and Furnaces

• Lower the temperature setting on your water heater to 120 degrees.
• Put an insulation wrap around the sides of your water heater. (But remember: Never put insulation on the top of the heater or near the bottom.)
• Add insulation in your attic.
• Lower the thermostat when no one is home.
• Install a programmable thermostat to automatically adjust the temperature each day.
• Clean or replace all filters at least once per month.
• Have the system inspected and maintained regularly.
• Keep heating and return vents free of all obstructions for proper airflow.

For more great tips, check out the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Savers site.

Energy Consumption

 Give credit to GeoHive

Energy: consumption by type and country, 2006

rank	country	million tonnes oil equivalent
		oil	natural gas	coal	nuclear	hydro-electric	total
1.	USA	938.8	566.9	567.3	187.5	65.9	2,326.4
2.	China	349.8	50.0	1,191.3	12.3	94.3	1,697.8
3.	Russian Federation	128.5	388.9	112.5	35.4	39.6	704.9
4.	Japan	235.0	76.1	119.1	68.6	21.5	520.3
5.	India	120.3	35.8	237.7	4.0	25.4	423.2
6.	Germany	123.5	78.5	82.4	37.9	6.3	328.5
7.	Canada	98.8	87.0	35.0	22.3	79.3	322.3
8.	France	92.8	40.6	13.1	102.1	13.9	262.6
9.	United Kingdom	82.2	81.7	43.8	17.0	1.9	226.6
10.	South Korea	105.3	30.8	54.8	33.7	1.2	225.8
11.	Brazil	92.1	19.0	13.1	3.1	79.2	206.5
12.	Italy	85.7	69.4	17.4	-	9.7	182.2
13.	Iran	79.3	94.6	1.1	-	3.8	178.8
14.	Saudi Arabia	92.6	66.3	-	-	-	158.9
15.	Mexico	86.9	48.7	9.3	2.5	6.8	154.2
16.	Spain	78.1	30.0	18.3	13.6	5.7	145.8
17.	Ukraine	15.0	59.8	39.6	20.4	2.9	137.8
18.	Australia	40.3	25.8	51.1	-	3.6	120.8
19.	South Africa	23.2	-	93.8	2.4	0.8	120.2
20.	Indonesia	48.7	35.6	27.7	-	2.3	114.3
21.	Taiwan	52.5	10.7	39.5	9.0	1.8	113.6
22.	Turkey	28.5	27.4	28.8	-	9.9	94.7
23.	Poland	23.1	12.3	58.4	-	0.7	94.5
24.	Netherlands	49.6	34.5	7.5	0.8	-	92.3
25.	Thailand	44.3	27.5	12.4	-	1.8	86.1
26.	Belgium & Luxembourg	41.0	15.3	6.1	11.0	0.6	73.9
27.	Argentina	21.1	37.6	0.9	1.7	9.7	71.0
28.	Venezuela	26.1	25.8	-	-	18.4	70.4
29.	Malaysia	23.0	36.2	6.3	-	1.6	67.0
30.	Kazakhstan	10.6	18.2	29.7	-	1.8	60.3
31.	Egypt	29.1	25.8	1.0	-	2.9	58.8
32.	Pakistan	18.4	27.6	4.0	0.6	7.4	58.0
33.	United Arab Emirates	19.7	37.5	-	-	-	57.2
34.	Singapore	44.0	5.9	-	-	-	50.0
35.	Uzbekistan	6.9	38.9	1.1	-	1.6	48.5
36.	Sweden	14.9	0.8	2.2	15.4	14.0	47.3
37.	Czech Republic	9.8	7.6	19.4	5.9	0.7	43.5
38.	Norway	10.0	4.0	0.4	-	27.1	41.5
39.	Romania	10.5	15.3	7.6	1.3	4.2	38.8
40.	Greece	22.1	2.9	8.8	-	1.4	35.2
41.	Austria	14.2	8.5	3.0	-	8.1	33.7
42.	Algeria	11.5	21.4	0.6	-	-	33.5
43.	Switzerland	12.6	2.7	0.1	6.3	7.4	29.0
44.	Colombia	10.3	6.6	2.4	-	9.6	28.9
45.	Chile	11.4	6.8	3.0	-	6.7	27.9
46.	Finland	10.6	3.8	5.2	5.4	2.6	27.6
47.	Portugal	16.8	3.7	3.7	-	2.7	26.7
48.	Belarus	8.0	17.6	0.1	-	-	25.7
49.	Kuwait	14.0	11.6	-	-	-	25.6
50.	Philippines	14.4	2.3	6.5	-	1.9	25.2
51.	Hungary	7.4	11.3	2.9	3.0	-	24.7
52.	China Hong Kong SAR	13.2	2.2	7.5	-	-	22.9
53.	Turkmenistan	5.2	17.0	-	-	-	22.3
54.	Qatar	4.4	17.6	-	-	-	21.9
55.	Bulgaria	5.0	2.7	7.4	4.4	0.8	20.3
56.	Denmark	9.5	4.6	5.5	-	-	19.6
57.	Bangladesh	4.1	13.7	0.4	-	0.3	18.5
58.	New Zealand	7.2	3.3	2.2	-	5.2	18.0
59.	Slovakia	3.9	5.0	3.8	4.1	1.0	17.8
60.	Republic of Ireland	9.3	4.0	1.8	-	0.2	15.4
61.	Peru	7.5	1.6	0.9	-	4.1	14.1
62.	Azerbaijan	4.7	8.6	-	-	0.6	13.9
63.	Ecuador	8.1	0.2	-	-	1.9	10.3
64.	Lithuania	2.8	2.9	0.2	2.0	0.2	8.0
65.	Iceland	1.0	-	0.1	-	1.6	2.7
	World	3,889.8	2,574.9	3,090.1	635.5	688.1	10,878.5

Give credit to American Energy Information Administration (EIA) and to the International Energy Agency (IEA),

Prediction of energy consumption world-wide

How much energy will we consume in the future?

According to the American Energy Information Administration (EIA) and to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world-wide energy consumption will on average continue to increase by 2% per year. The graph below shows the actual values starting from 1980 until today in blue and the predictions of the energy consumption until the year 2030 in orange.
A yearly increase by 2% leads to a doubling of the energy consumption every 35 years. This means the world-wide energy consumption is predicted to be twice as high in the year 2040 compared to today (2007).

More detailed data (in quadrillion BTU) of the actual and predicted energy consumption world-wide by geographic area:

Region	2003	2010	2015	2020	2025	2030	Average Annual Percent Change, 2003-2030
OECD	234.3	256.1	269.9	281.6	294.5	308.8	1.0
North America	118.3	131.4	139.9	148.4	157.0	166.2	1.3
Europe	78.9	84.4	87.2	88.7	91.3	94.5	0.7
Asia	37.1	40.3	42.8	44.4	46.1	48.0	1.0
Non-OECD	186.4	253.6	293.5	331.5	371.0	412.8	3.0
Europe and Eurasia	48.5	56.5	62.8	68.7	74.0	79.0	1.8
Asia	83.1	126.2	149.4	172.8	197.1	223.6	3.7
Middle East	19.6	25.0	28.2	31.2	34.3	37.7	2.4
Africa	13.3	17.7	20.5	22.3	24.3	26.8	2.6
Central and South America	21.9	28.2	32.5	36.5	41.2	45.7	2.8
Total World	420.7	509.7	563.4	613.0	665.4	721.6	2.0

The highest annual growth of energy consumption is predicted for Asia (3.7%), NON-OECD countries (3%) and Central and South America (2.8%). The lowest annual growth of energy consumption is predicted for Europe with 1%.

Current energy consumption by capita

The values are indicated as "kg oil equivalents" or kgoe. An example from the graph: People living in North America use per year and per person the energy equivalent to approx. 8'000 kg oil, which is about 10'000 litres of oil. To convert "kg oil equivalent" into kWh, multiply it with the factor 11.628. Example: 8'000 kg oil is about 93'024 kWh (11.628 x 8'000) or 93 MWh.
There are huge differences between individual regions of the world.

Most abbreviations for countries are self explaining, except perhaps NLD = Netherlands, DEU = Germany, AUT = Austria, GBR = United Kingdom, CHE = Switzerland, CHN = China, VNM = Vietnam, IND = India

Data has been extracted from Earthtrends.wri.org , an excellent, very flexible source of data. This site is recommended if you want to go into more details.

Current sources of energy - share of fossil fuels

With respect to global warming, it is important to know how much fossil fuels are being used. Fossil fuels are converted into water and carbon dioxide when they are burnt in heatings, cars, air planes, etc. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and as such the most important cause for global warming.

World-wide, about 80% of all energy used is currently from fossil fuels.
In order to mitigate global warming, it is inevitable to reduce the quantity of fossil fuels consumed as much as possible. As already shown further above, the world-wide energy consumption is predicted to double again within the next 35 years.
Let's therefore have a look at the predicted energy consumptions by energy source:

Future sources of energy (predictions by fuel types)

In particular with respect to the emission of greenhouse gases and global warming, it is interesting to study the predicted growth of energy consumption by fuel type. See graph below (again from EIA)

By far the highest increase in world-wide energy consumption is predicted to be from all three fossil fuels: oil, coal and natural gas! The renewable energies are predicted to grow as well, but much less than fossil energies. Nuclear energy is predicted to grow relatively moderate.
Instead of a reduction, the data from EIA and IEA predict a massive increase of the consumption of fossil fuels. According to the above chart, even the share of fossil fuels will increase further, to more than 80%! The consumption of fossil fuels is predicted to be twice as high already in the year 2020 compared to today's consumption.

We have a serious problem

It is only possible to mitigate global warming if the world-wide consumption of fossil fuels can be drastically reduced in the next 10 to 15 years. There is simply no room for a scenario as it is predicted by the International Energy Agency IEA (see chart above).
It is also obvious that no combination of alternative technologies can replace the current usage of fossil fuels. There is simply not enough non-fossil fuel available for this. In order to mitigate global warming, we have to use the available energy much more efficiently. But this won't be enough either: We will have to change our behaviour to reduce our personal energy consumption. We must change our current live style and seriously strive for a sustainable living.

Energy consumption per capita for the top energy consumers

Here is an update of the energy consumption per capita and for the predicted energy consumption for the top energy consuming countries:

Water footprint

 Give credit to virtualwater.eu

Water is probably one of the most precious resources and vital for everyone’s everyday life. Despite this obvious fact, people use large amounts of water: drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, and almost every other physical product.
One of the most important research papers in this field is Chapagain, A.K. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2004), »Water footprints of nations«, Value of Water Research Report Series No. 16, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands.
Designer Timm Kekeritz created a set of infographics, visualizing parts of their research data, to make the issue of virtual water and the water footprint perceptible.
The water footprint of a person, company or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the commodities, goods and services consumed by the person, company or nation.
The idea of the water footprint is quite similar to the ecological footprint, but focussing on the use of water.

The Theory

[excerpt from waterfootprint.org]
Virtual water content: The virtual-water content of a product (a commodity, good or service) is the volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced (production-site definition). It refers to the sum of the water use in the various steps of the production chain. The virtual-water content of a product can also be defined as the volume of water that would have been required to produce the product at the place where the product is consumed (consumption-site definition). We recommend to use the production-site definition and to mention it explicitly when the consumption-site definition is used. The adjective ‘virtual’ refers to the fact that most of the water used to produce a product is not contained in the product. The real-water content of products is generally negligible if compared to the virtual-water content. [Read more at waterfootprint.org]

The Design

Based on the data gathered by Hoeckstra et al., German designer Timm Kekeritz of Raureif created the concise infographic design in cyan and black.
The design is minimalistic, using silhouettes and elegant typography only, featuring the elegant typefaces TheSans and TheSerif by Luc(as) de Groot.
The Virtual Water Project has been initiated by the lecture »Water for life« in the summer of 2007 at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam in Germany. The design process has been guided by Prof. Dr. Frank Heidmann and Prof. Nils Krüger.
The design became popular world-wide and has been published by newspapers, magazines, websites and blogs around the globe.

Footprint

 Give credit to alyson kenward

How big is your footprint?

If you think your morning cup of coffee only has 12 ounces of water in it, you're sorely mistaken—it has closer to 40 gallons. Conservation scientists say it's time we think about how much water goes into growing, manufacturing, and shipping our food, and about where exactly that water originated.
Concerns over greenhouse gas emissions have vaulted the term "carbon footprint" into the mainstream vernacular. Now, by promoting the concept of a "water footprint" with the goal of including it on product labels, researchers are hoping to draw similar attention to how drastically we're draining our most precious resource. As the water footprint gains popularity, however, researchers are struggling to reach a consensus on how best to measure that footprint so the public understands its full impact.
As currently defined, a product's water footprint is an inventory of the total amount of water that goes into its manufacture. For that cup of coffee, for instance, most of the 40 gallons go into watering coffee plants and cooling the roasters during processing.

Water footprint

 Give credit to H2oconserve

The H₂O Conserve Water Footprint Calculator is an interactive tool designed to help you quantify how much water you use, find out how you use it and what you can do to conserve.
The Calculator estimates the total amount of water you use, or your water footprint, using information you provide about your water use and habits. The Calculator takes into account not only the water used in your home, but also the water used to produce the food you eat, the products you buy, the energy you consume, and even the water saved when you recycle. You may not drink, feel or see this virtual water, but it makes up the majority of your water footprint.

Based on your water use information, the Water Footprint Calculator :
• Provides a general assessment of your direct water and virtual water use, as well as a comparison to the national average of the combined direct and virtual water use of U.S. residents as developed by H₂O Conserve.
• Shows your total household water use, as well as the average use per person in your household.

NOTE: The Calculator uses data from the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several other sources to calculate an individual’s water footprints. Results are based on national averages and approximations, and your results should be considered an estimate.

Water footprint

Give credit to Wikipedia

The water footprint concept was introduced in 2002 by A.Y. Hoekstra from UNESCO-IHE as an alternative indicator of water use. The concept was refined and accounting methods were established with a series of publications from two lead authors A.K. Chapagain and A.Y. Hoekstra from the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, now at WWF-UK and University of Twente respectively. The most elaborate publications on how to estimate water footprints are a 2004-report on the 'Water footprint of nations' from UNESCO-IHE and the 2008-book Globalization of Water by A.Y. Hoekstra and A.K. Chapagain, published by Blackwell, 2008. Cooperation between global leading institutions in the field has led to the establishment of the Water Footprint Network in 2008 that aims to coordinate efforts to further develop and disseminate knowledge on water footprint concepts, methods and tools.

 Blue, green and grey water footprint

A water footprint consists of three components: the blue, green and grey water footprint. The blue water footprint is the volume of freshwater that evaporated from the global blue water resources (surface water and ground water) to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community. The green water footprint is the volume of water evaporated from the global green water resources (rainwater stored in the soil as soil moisture). The grey water footprint is the volume of polluted water that associates with the production of all goods and services for the individual or community. The latter can be estimated as the volume of water that is required to dilute pollutants to such an extent that the quality of the water remains at or above agreed water quality standards.

 Water footprint of individual consumers

The water footprint of an individual consumer refers to the sum of direct and indirect freshwater use by the consumer. The direct water use is the water used at home. The indirect water use relates to the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the consumer.
The global average Water Footprint is 1240 m³ water/person/year. The Chinese average is 700 m³ water/person/year one of the smallest in the world and the United States's 2480 m³ water/person/year is the largest in the world which is published in a concise form in a journal The Finnish average Water Footprint is 1730 m³ water/person/year. The water footprint of the UK is 1695 m³ water/person/year.

Water footprint of businesses

The water footprint of a business, the 'corporate water footprint', is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used directly or indirectly to run and support a business. It is the total volume of water use to be associated with the use of the business outputs. The water footprint of a business consists of two components: the direct water use by the producer (for producing/manufacturing or for supporting activities) and the indirect water use (in the producer’s supply chain).

Water footprints of nations

The water footprint of a nation shows the water that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the nation. It includes two components: the internal and the external water footprint. The first component refers to the appropriation of domestic water resources; the latter to the appropriation of water resources in other countries. About 65% of Japan's total water footprint comes from outside the country; about 7% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China.

 Water footprint calculation standard

Since 2009 there is a global calculation standard for the water footprint, maintained by the Water Footprint Network, an international network of governments, corporations, non-governmental organizations and UN bodies.

 Criticism of the water footprint concept

Due to the recent spread of the water footprint as an indicator of water use, application and interpretation of the results may sometimes be performed to promote industrial activities that lead to facile criticism of certain products without discussing the results in further detail. The 140 litres required for coffee production for one cup might be of no harm to water resources as its cultivation occurs mainly in humid areas. Nevertheless, the resulting figures suggest the sum of water quantities as an environmental concern, a concern that may not always be justified given a region's specific set of factors, such as hydrology, climate, geology, topography, and so forth.
Recently, the concept has been criticized for the term "footprint," which can confuse people familiar with the notion of a carbon footprint since the water footprint concept, as described above, includes sums of water quantities without necessarily evaluating related impacts. This is in contrast to the carbon footprint, where carbon emissions are not simply summarized but normalized by CO₂ emissions, which are globally identical, to account for the environmental harm. The difference is due to the somewhat more complex nature of water; while involved in the global hydrological cycle, it is expressed in conditions both local and regional through various forms like river basins, watersheds, on down to groundwater (as part of larger aquifer systems).

Water footprint

Give credit to info@waterfootprint.org

• Water Footprint water footprint is quite simply the volume of water used. At the individual level, this is expressed in litres. But at the national level, this becomes complex - The water footprint of a nation is equal to the use of domestic water resources, minus the virtual water export flows, plus the virtual water import flows.
  The total ‘water footprint’ of a nation is a useful indicator of a nation’s call on the global water resources. The water footprint of a nation is related to dietary habits of people. High consumption of meat brings along a large water footprint. Also the more food originates from irrigated land, the larger is the water footprint. Finally, nations in warm climate zones have relatively high water consumption for their domestic food production resulting in a larger water footprint. At an individual level, it is useful to show the footprint as a function of food diet and consumption patterns.
  
  

  Ten litres of orange juice needs a litre of diesel fuel for processing and transport, and 220 litres of water for irrigaton and washing the fruit. The water may be a renewable resource, but the fuel is not only irreplaceable but is a pollutant, too. Behind that morning cup of coffee is 140 litres of water used to grow, produce, package and ship the beans.

  1 cup of coffee needs 140 litres of water. 1 litre of milk needs 1000 litres of water. 1 kg of wheat needs 1350 litres of water. 1 kg of rice needs 3000 litres of water. 1 kg maize needs 900 litres of water. The production of one kilogram of beef requires 22 thousand litres of water. To produce one cup of coffee we need 140 litres of water. The water footprint of China is about 775 cubic meter per year per capita. Only about 3% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China. Japan with a footprint of 1100 cubic meter per year per capita, has about 60% of its total water footprint outside the borders of the country. The USA water footprint is 2600 cubic meter per year per capita. Source: UNESCO-IHE - Water Footprint

  
  
  

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• Virtual Water Virtual water is the amount of water that is embedded in food or other products needed for its production. Trade in virtual water allows water scarce countries to import high water consuming products while exporting low water consuming products and in this way making water available for other purposes [World Water Council].
  For example, the virtual water content (in m3/ton) for potatoes is 160. Others examples - maize=900; milk=900; wheat=1350; soybean=2300; rice=3000; poultry=2800; eggs=4700; cheese=5300; pork=5900; and beef=16000.
  Showing people the 'virtual water' content of various consumption goods will increase the water awareness of people.
  

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  eople consume water not only when they drink it or take a shower. In 1993, Professor John Allan (2008 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate), strikingly demonstrated this by introducing the "virtual water" concept, which measures how water is embedded in the production and trade of food and consumer products. Behind that morning cup of coffee are 140 litres of water used to grow, produce, package and ship the beans. That is roughly the same amount of water used by an average person daily in England for drinking and household needs. The ubiquitous hamburger needs an estimated 2,400 litres of water. Per capita, Americans consume around 6,800 litres of virtual water every day, over triple that of a Chinese person.
  Virtual water has major impacts on global trade policy and research, especially in water-scarce regions, and has redefined discourse in water policy and management. By explaining how and why nations such as the US, Argentina and Brazil 'export' billions of litres of water each year, while others like Japan, Egypt and Italy 'import' billions, the virtual water concept has opened the door to more productive water use.
  National, regional and global water and food security, for example, can be enhanced when water intensive commodities are traded from places where they are economically viable to produce to places where they are not. While studying water scarcity in the Middle East, Professor Allan developed the theory of using virtual water import, via food, as an alternative water "source" to reduce pressure on the scarcely available domestic water resources there and in other water-short regions. [SIWI - www.siwi.org]