The water “shoesize” vs. footprint of bioenergy

Gerbens-Leenes et al. (1) quantify water use of the most relevant global bioenergy crops except palm oil. This is a welcome addition to the existing literature, which often only focuses on “carbon footprints.” Although carbon footprints have been shown to capture a large portion of overall environmental effects for many products and services, the agricultural sector needs additional consideration of other environmental indicators (2). In particular, land use and water consumption can be of substantial importance. Calculating a water footprint is therefore crucial for agriculture-based products.