Water footprint sustainability assessment for the chemical sector at the regional level

Abstract Water resource management is an important consideration for water-intensive industries, such as the chlor-alkali sector. Water footprint is a three-component measure of freshwater consumption over the life cycle of a product, and takes into account both direct and indirect water use. This work extends the water footprint concept for products by integrating water scarcity in geographic regions where the production takes place. A general framework for water footprint sustainability analysis (WFSA) for chemical production chains is thus developed. WFSA combines the water scarcity index and water footprint, and is applied at the level of geographic regions. Two indicators are then proposed to assess the sustainability of the product and of the industrial sector in a specific region of interest. Based on this framework, some policy recommendations are proposed to enhance the sustainability of the chlor-alkali sector.

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