dws-wfn-poster-750px
Water Footprint Network developed a set of training materials and tools for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reduce their water print, specially designed for small companies in the food, textiles and metal industries in six European countries.

The development was part of the European project Save H2O to enable European SMEs to embed sustainable water management into their businesses.

Materials and tools are now freely available online.

Design strategies
These new resources intend to provide SME managers and owners, technical staff and technical experts from business support organisations and companies with the skills and knowledge to evaluate the water footprint of SMEs and to design well-adjusted strategies to help reduce the water footprint whilst remaining competitive.

All resources are available in English, French, Portuguese, Croatian, Greek, Italian and Dutch.

dws-wfn-sme-start-page-350px  Opening page of online tool for SMEs to check their water footprint.

Direct and indirect water use
The tool is based on the Water Footprint Assessment Manual and the Water Footprint Network's WaterStat database.

It provides a step by step calculation of the direct water use of facilities operation and the indirect water use of the products’ supply chain. It is designed to provide an estimate of the water footprint for diverse users, from farmers to restaurants and manufacturers to retailers.

The calculator focuses on the food, textile and metal sectors, yet can be applied to other types of business.

Currently, it has been created for six specific European countries, yet the aim of the Water footprint network is to broaden it to all the countries in the future.

dws-wfn-water-use-europe-350pxTraining course
The course has been developed to train new Water footprint managers and participation is free.

Participants will be trained to assess the water footprint of a company’s products and services along the supply chain and to manage water resources in a more sustainable and efficient way, in compliance with relevant European and national legislation.

The Save H2O project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and was developed by a consortium of eight organisations, lead by the Zadar county rural development agency (AGRRA).

This news item was originally published on the website of Water Footprint Network.

Read also on this website
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Made Blue funds first water project based on waterfootprint of 10 connected brands, 13 November 2014
New launched version of Water Footprint Assessment Tool provides easier access to data on global water use, 25 July 2014

More information
Water Footprint Network
Enschede, the Netherlands
+31 53 489 5383
www.waterfootprint.org