ISO 14046:2014 Environmental management — Water footprint — Principles, requirements and guidelines
Overview
Water is an essential natural resource and its effective management is a key consideration in light of growing demand and water scarcity. ISO 14046 is the international standard to help your organization conduct and report a water footprint assessment and identify potential environmental impacts related to water.
ISO 14046:2014 specifies principles, requirements and guidelines related to water footprint assessment of products, processes and organizations based on life cycle assessment (LCA).
ISO 14046:2014 provides principles, requirements and guidelines for conducting and reporting a water footprint assessment as a stand-alone assessment, or as part of a more comprehensive environmental assessment.
Only air and soil emissions that impact water quality are included in the assessment, and not all air and soil emissions are included. The result of a water footprint assessment is a single value or a profile of impact indicator results.
Whereas reporting is within the scope of ISO 14046:2014, communication of water footprint results, for example in the form of labels or declarations, is outside the scope of ISO 14046:2014.
Why should you use this standard?
Use of ISO 14046 can help any business asses their water footprint in a credible, transparent way. These water footprint results can be calculated for products, processes or organizations.
This international standard is based on life cycle assessment (according to ISO 14044) addressing the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.
It can help an organization boost its reputation by assessing its water footprint and reducing environmental damage, decrease its own water usage and cut costs plus contribute to improved water management both locally and globally.
How BSI can support?
Verification audits: By partnering with BSI to verify your compliance with international best practices, we will highlight current strengths and weaknesses in your systems with our value-adding reports.
Internal audits: Let us review your organizational governance against industry-specific requirements, protocols, and standards.
Training: Our expert tutors deliver a wide range of training courses either online, in-house, or part of an open course to help you understand, implement, and audit against the requirements to the standard.
