Sustainability Management and Water Footprint in Industry

Production, consumption and service throughout the life cycle for human well-being, comfort and quality of life—when conducted with efficient use of resources, best available technology and best water-energy-waste management—achieves clean production, consumption and service. If we consume all resources used while considering future generations' needs and without jeopardizing those needs, "Sustainable Production and Consumption" is achieved. Being sustainable means making resources "permanent" for the future. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals designate objective 12 under the heading "Responsible Production and Consumption," emphasizing the need to ensure "Sustainable Production and Consumption" patterns. It also demonstrates that if we do not change our production and consumption habits, we will cause irreversible damage to our planet. When applying clean technology, we must manage our resources efficiently for today and sustainably for tomorrow. In other words, resource efficiency is essential. In production processes, the concept of efficiency is expressed through the best resource evaluation in the input-output relationship. Efficiency means achieving the same outputs with the least possible raw materials, water and energy consumption, or producing more and higher quality output from the same resources. Resource-efficient use of production inputs is essential for sustainable production. This is because natural resources are rapidly depleting and their value is increasing. Water is a limited and shared national and global asset. Water problems are our common problems. Sustainable water management must also be a shared objective. Sustainable water infrastructure and sustainable water systems are essential for sustainable water management and access to clean and safe water. Within this water system, individuals and organizations must make their water consumption sustainable. According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data, 60-90% of total water consumption is used in agriculture, 5-10% in homes and 5% in industry. It is a requirement that water access be considered when managing existing facilities and establishing new ones. It must never be forgotten that in investments, our country is not water-rich and current projections show that water shortages will be experienced. Individuals, organizations and countries create a Water Footprint (WF) through direct and indirect water consumption. WF:

• An indicator that evaluates direct or indirect water use by a consumer or producer,
• A calculation that helps us understand for which purposes limited freshwater resources are consumed and polluted,
• The total freshwater volume used to produce goods and services consumed by an individual or community or produced by a business.

WF is calculated in m³/ton of production; m³/hectare; m³/currency unit and m³/other functional units. In industry, supply chain, production and general facility consumption, WF is created. WF is embedded in each product. Green Water is the amount of rainwater consumed in production, particularly for agriculture, horticulture and forest products. Blue Water is the sum of groundwater and surface water resources needed to produce a good or service. Blue water exists in irrigated agriculture, industrial production and domestic water consumption. Grey Water is the amount of freshwater needed to absorb pollutants in order to meet certain water quality standards in waste management during production. WF of products, processes, services, organizations, regions and countries are calculated according to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ISO 14000 Environmental Management Series (ISO 14040; ISO 14044), ISO 14071—Environmental Management: Life Cycle Assessment—Critical Review Processes and Review Competencies and ISO 14046—Environmental Management: Water Footprint, Principles, Requirements and Guidelines (August 2014) standards (See Figure 1). With WF determination, better water management and decision-making for water-climate change mutual interaction, water strategy preparation become possible, and answers to the following questions can be obtained: • At what point is the company's water dependency in its operations or supply chain? • How well are the regulations protecting our water resources? • What is the company's water security status? • How secure are our food and energy sources? • What can I do to reduce organization and product WF? • How can organizational water management be improved? Organizations can reduce WF impacts by: • Reasonable and feasible WF reduction, • Avoiding water activities where possible, • Making reasonable and feasible investments through sustainable projects for offsetting. Thus water management, with awareness of current status, provides continuity and reduction in sustainability management through correct decision-making mechanisms for each stage in the production life cycle. In the company's stance for environment and climate, visibility, greening based on concrete data and transparent corporate responsibility are evident. Companies that excel at water management also make progress in sustainability management.