Find Your Water Footprint and Learn How to Save Water

With increasing strain on water resources, it’s important to learn how to save water. A great first step towards saving is learning how you use water in different parts of your life. It turns out that your water use goes far beyond the water that flows from the tap. Everything from your morning shower to your evening dinner and all of your everyday habits in between requires water that adds up to what’s known as your “water footprint.”

What Is a Water Footprint?

Your water footprint includes the water you use from a tap plus the “virtual water” used to produce the food you eat, the products you buy and the energy you use. This virtual water makes up most of your water footprint.

GRACE’s Water Footprint Calculator (available in both English and Spanish) helps you find out how your daily actions affect your individual water use. It helps you identify water use patterns and gives everyone – from individuals to business managers to public officials – a solid frame of reference that helps the world be more efficient and sustainable with water use.

How Can I Lower My Water Footprint?

First things first! Take the Water Footprint Calculator to find out how you’re doing. You might be surprised to find out that your diet makes up almost two-thirds of your water footprint! Could you make changes that would help you save more water?

Once you’re there, you’ll find the best tips that show you how to conserve. After you’ve looked through the tips, challenge yourself to use 10 percent less water. Don’t forget to check out our deeper-dive issue pages that help you understand more about water footprints and how we use water to produce our food, household goods and electricity as well as the water we use from a tap in and around our homes.

By understanding your own water footprint, you can appreciate the role water plays in all our lives, and choose the best ways to help conserve this invaluable resource.