Here’s the rub: if you thought measuring a supply chain’s carbon footprint was onerous, welcome to the world of water footprinting.

I know what you’re thinking, basically that transportation and logistics are far removed from beer brewers and jeans makers-two water-intensive manufacturing processes.

But, like all fundamental and precious commodities, water plays a huge role in global supply chains. And, even if the transportation and logistics industry isn’t on the front lines of water footprinting, it’s guaranteed that our customers-ranging from apparel manufacturers to food and beverage companies-are already there, which means it will eventually impact all stakeholders in the supply chain.

I met Will Sarni at the Fortune: Green conference a few years back. He turned me on to water footprinting and I’ve been following the topic ever since. Recently, Will landed at Deloitte, where he serves as practice leader for the firm’s Enterprise Water Strategy. He kindly spent some time on the phone with me last month discussing how quickly water footprinting has moved to the forefront for many companies.

As Will and co-author Andrew Winston stated bluntly in a recent Harvard Business Review blog, “Companies need to develop strategies for managing this important resource as water stress becomes the norm in many regions of the world.”

Furthermore, several recent reports on the topic affirmed the same message: Water demand is increasing while water quality is decreasing; Climate change will impact water availability; Price does not reflect the real value of water (which causes massive underinvestment in infrastructure); and, the Public and Private Sectors need to collectively develop new ways to manage water.

Will is a big believer in pursuing water efficiency practices first. For the transportation and logistics industry, this could easily start in the warehouse, “toilets, showers, faucets, ground maintenance and irrigation-it’s not terribly sexy, but it’s a good starting point,” he says.

You can check out the article on water footprinting on page 42.

Meanwhile, contributing writer Dan McCue has a lot to report regarding major container ports around the country and how they’re preparing for the Panama Canal expansion. In fact, Dan had so much to say that we’re running an abbreviated version of his article in this month’s issue and putting the full-length version on our Web site. Check it out online, it’s pretty exciting.

Finally, many in our industry are familiar with the various logistics aid organizations and the excellent work they do to match up transportation companies with relief agencies and other NGOs who assist during natural disasters.

ALAN, the American Logistics Aid Network, is a great example and if your company isn’t already involved with ALAN, visit the Web site to learn more (http://alanaid.org). And, stop by WT100’s Web site and listen to the podcast with Jock Menzies, President of ALAN.

The organization has been there during Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, and now the earthquake in Japan. They could really use your help.

Enjoy the read.



Lara L. Sowinski, Editor

laras@worldtradewt100.com