Track Water Usage

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Describe the water activities associated with stationary assets.
Explain Stationary Asset Water Activity and Stationary Asset Water Footprint records.
Gather water use data from suppliers.

Results of studies promoted in the EU conclude that textile production is responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and finishing products. NTO has several buildings (stationary assets) that require water for various purposes, be it for textile manufacturing or for regular use by its employees. Sam must set up Net Zero Cloud so NTO can track its water usage.

To get started with the setup, Sam requests the admin to enable the Manage Water Accounting feature in Net Zero Settings.

The Manage Water Accounting feature enabled in Net Zero Settings

The Manage Water Accounting feature is available only with a Net Zero Cloud Growth license.

To track how NTO’s stationary assets use water, Sam must perform the following steps in Net Zero Cloud.

Create Stationary Asset Water Activities.
Calculate Stationary Asset Water Footprint.

Create Stationary Asset Water Activities

A water activity defines how water is used by a stationary asset. The water activities associated with stationary assets can be of three types.

Water withdrawn: The volume of water removed from a water source, such as a lake, river, or ocean. Often, a portion of this water returns to the source.
Water discharged: The volume of water (from the water withdrawn) that is discharged after use. The quality of this water may have deteriorated from the time it was withdrawn from the source. So it may require treatment before it’s released to the source.
Water consumed: The volume of water removed from the source for use and not discharged.

Consumption occurs when water is absorbed into the atmosphere through evaporation or incorporated into a product or plant, and is no longer available for reuse.

In simple terms:

Water withdrawn – Water discharged = Water consumed

Water is withdrawn from its source by NTO’s building and is consumed. Part of it gets discharged after use and is treated at a water treatment plant, after which it returns to its source.

Sam needs to create Stationary Asset Water Activity records to capture NTO’s water activities (withdrawal, consumption, or discharge) associated with stationary assets.

To create a Stationary Asset Water Activity record, Sam needs the following key details.

Name: A name for the water activity.
Stationary asset environmental source: The stationary asset environmental source to which this record is to be associated.
Activity type: It can be Consumption, Discharge, or Withdrawal. If the activity type is Discharge, you must select a Treatment Type, which specifies the type of activity performed for the treatment and discharge of the water.
Report period details: The details of the duration for which this record is being generated. This includes Start Date, End Date, and the Water Footprint Report Date.
Environmental risk: The environment risk value is automatically updated if its value is associated with the stationary asset environmental source. An environmental risk is a representation of the kind of risk that the availability of water in a specific region could impose on the business of an organization.

The New Stationary Asset Water Activity window.

Sam can also associate a Stationary Asset Water Activity record with an existing Stationary Asset Water Footprint, if required. For more details about creating a Stationary Asset Water Activity record, see Create a Water Activity Record.

Create the Stationary Asset Water Footprint

A Stationary Asset Water Footprint record is a consolidated entity that holds detailed water use information of a particular asset for a specific reporting period. For example, it can store the water use information of NTO’s headquarters for the period January 2021 to December 2021, and Sam can use this record to measure NTO’s efficiency in water use.

A Stationary Asset Water Footprint record can have multiple Stationary Asset Water Footprint items associated with it. These items are automatically created through inputs such as activity type, activity source type, and treatment method from the stationary asset water activities associated with the footprint. Each Stationary Asset Water Activity record is associated with a Stationary Asset Water Footprint record.

When you create a new water activity, you must create the Stationary Asset Water Footprint record and add the water activities and water footprints.

To create a Stationary Asset Water Footprint record, Sam requires values for the following key fields.

Name: A name for the water footprint.
Footprint Stage: The latest workflow status of the water footprint. It can be one of the following: Emission Source Confirmation, Data Collection, Data Validation, Internal Audit, External Audit, and Completed.
Report Period Detail: The details of the duration for which the record is being generated. This includes Start Date, End Date, and the Reporting Year.
Total Storage (Ml): The total storage of water available for water activities. The unit used is mega-liter.
Asset Attributes: This includes the following details about the stationary asset:

Employee Count: The number of employees working in the building.
Total Units Manufactured: The number of product units being manufactured where applicable.
Occupied Floor Area and Occupied Floor Area Unit: The total floor area occupied by the company and the unit of measure used to indicate the area.
Total Floor Area and Total Floor Area Unit: The total floor area of the building and the unit of measure used to indicate the area.

The New Stationary Asset Water Footprint window.

For more details about creating a Stationary Asset Water Footprint record, see Create a Water Footprint Record.

Sam creates Stationary Asset Water Activity and Stationary Asset Water Footprint records. The Stationary Asset Water Footprint record shows the total water withdrawal, consumption, and discharge for the specific reporting year. He then checks the Stationary Asset Water Footprint Items associated with the Stationary Asset Water Footprint on the Related tab.

An example Stationary Asset Water Footprint record.

If any data in the associated footprint items changes, Sam can use the Recalculate option available on the footprint to get the updated emissions numbers.

Sam can also lock the water footprint record to ensure that it is not updated accidentally or by an automated process. This also locks the child or associated Stationary Asset Water Activities records and the Stationary Asset Water Footprint Items.

Sam can modify, lock, unlock, and recalculate records that he created. But if he wants to perform these actions on records that are created by other users, he must have the Modify All permission on them.

Engage with Suppliers to Get Their Water Usage Data

Sam has calculated the water use associated with NTO’s buildings. But there are multiple instances when NTO uses services of its suppliers along its value chain. During the manufacture and transport of finished products to NTO’s retail stores across a region, suppliers use a certain volume of water that needs to be accounted for.

To track this data, Sam creates a Sustainability Scorecard record for suppliers. Using this scorecard, suppliers can share data about the amount of water consumed, discharged, or withdrawn. For more details about the scorecard, see Scope 3 Procurement Analysis and Supplier Engagement with Net Zero Cloud.

Here are the details that suppliers must share with NTO.

Water Withdrawal Value and Withdrawal Unit: The volume of water withdrawn and the unit of measure used.
Water Consumption Value and Consumption Unit: The volume of water consumed and the unit of measure used.
Water Discharge Value and Discharge Unit: The volume of water discharged and the specific unit of measure used.
Supplier Water Activity Type: The type of supplier-provided water activity. It can be either Allocated Water Activity or Total Water Activity.
Organization Water Allocation Percentage: The percentage of water activity allocated by the supplier to the organization.
Water Calculation Method:The method used to calculate an organization’s water activity. It can be one of the following:

Percentage-based: When the supplier allocates a percentage of the total water use.
Revenue-based: When the supplier allocates a portion of its revenue used towards total water use.
Supplier-provided: When the supplier shares specific information about its water use.

Supplier Water Activity Details on the Sustainability Scorecard.

With these details from suppliers, Sam has gathered comprehensive water use data for NTO across its entire value chain.

Analyze Water Usage Data

Net Zero Cloud comes with the Water Management Dashboard that lets Sam gain visual insights into NTO’s water usage. The dashboard shows him the data based on withdrawal, consumption, and discharge.

The Water Management Dashboard in Net Zero Cloud.

In this unit, Sam tracked NTO’s water usage using records and dashboards in Net Zero Cloud. In the next unit, let’s follow along as he tracks and manages the waste generated by NTO.