Activity based water footprint accounting in the context of environmental sustainability: An implementation in a manufacturing company

The concept of sustainability is gaining more and more place in everyday life. The main philosophy of sustainability is to use resources in a way that does not affect the lives of future generations. Water is one of the most vital scarce resources and should be closely monitored. Regrettably, many still need to understand how precious fresh water is and how to use it responsibly. In order to use water correctly and effectively, it must be measured and followed correctly. There are multiple methods in the literature that calculate the water footprint. These methods have various advantages and disadvantages against each other. However, none of the existing methods can monitor and follow the water with the logic of cost accounting. Due to this deficiency, businesses cannot detect their water-intensive activities or take precautions. In addition, in current methods, indirect water is not separated into direct and indirect parts as in cost accounting logic. Due to this deficit, indirect water is not appropriately allocated to the outputs, and the water footprints of the products that go through various processes are calculated unfairly. There was a need for a method that would allow the correct calculation of the water footprint on a product basis to produce the correct data for managers to manage water and create an awareness in the final consumer to make comparisons. The aim of this research is to introduce the activity-based water footprint accounting approach to fill this gap in the literature. Activity-based water footprint accounting is a method based on the activity-based costing method. With the help of this method, businesses will be able to monitor water as cost accounting monitors costs. After the water is divided into two groups, direct and indirect, just like costs, activities that cause indirect water consumption will be determined, activity pools will be created, and the activity drivers will be determined. In this way, water-intensive activities will be identified, and water footprints on non-value-adding activities and idle capacity will be revealed. In order to demonstrate the applicability of this proposed method, a case study was conducted at Ambalaj A.Ş., which produces packaging products in various sizes and volumes for different usage areas. At the end of this study, water-intensive activities, non-value-added activities, and the water footprint of idle capacity were revealed. In addition, it was determined that the packaging products with the smallest water footprints were produced from polypropylene raw material. Furthermore, it has been determined that the water footprint of the clad labelled products has grown due to the label cladding activity. Finally, it has been revealed that the water footprint of the packaging products, which are as simple in design as possible and produced in common moulds, is smaller.