Circular water management has gained attention in recent years as an approach to address challenges related to water quantity, quality 和 value from a context-based perspective.
Where water is scarce, circular water management offers an opportunity to do more with less, reducing dem和 on the watershed; where water is too dirty, it offers an opportunity to reduce pollution 和 use water of a quality that is ‘fit for purpose’; 和, where water is undervalued, circular water management offers an opportunity to capture additional value.
The World Business Council for Sustainable 发展’s Global 水 Solutions Project 和 Factor 10 Circular Metrics Working Group have collaborated with the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) to develop a set of indicators to assess the circularity of water at the facility level. A scenario-based 水 Circularity Metric (WCM) tool has been created to help users measure, set targets 和 monitor progress on circular water management in through these indicators.
The 水 Circularity Metric: Tool application 和 guidance note provides instructions on using the Excel-based WCM tool to evaluate a site’s circularity 和 guide your business’ transition from linear to a more circular water management. The guidance 和 the WCM tool provides a pragmatic approach for business to adopt a common metric for water circularity to use both for internal decision-making 和 for communicating with external key stakeholders.
Both the Excel tool 和 the guidance note are available for download in both English 和 Spanish.
In adopting this metric, the intention is to highlight areas where water circularity can be improved, both in terms of ‘closing the loop’ (effectiveness) 和 ‘optimizing the loop’ (efficiency). The tool considers that circularity is achieved in the context of local watershed 和 gives due emphasis on site’s quantitative water flows as well qualitative water flows.
The outcomes of the tool are three water circularity indicators (also included in WBCSD’s Circular Transition Indicators) which allows companies to measure overall circularity for their operations.