What About Water? A Consumer-centered Quantitative Research on Denmark's Water Footprint

Abstract

Water is an essential resource for our existence. Without it, there would be no trace of life on our planet. Unfortunately for us, water is a limited resource and only a small portion is exploitable for human purposes. Despite being arguably the most important element for the survival of the human race, a concerning warning has risen in the past decades. Every year, water shortages critically impact billions of people’s lives in several parts of the world, and the situation is rapidly plummeting. Even if these events should be worrying enough to mobilize governments and public institutions to act, only little attention has been devoted to this matter. With our research we wanted to shine a light on this important concern. Our approach brings a fresh perspective on the water footprint literature as it shifts its focus on the consumer rather than a product, an area, or a business. We used a quantitative approach to measure whether Denmark inhabitants are actually aware of their daily water consumption. The results are concerning: almost nobody in our sample was able to guess correctly the amount of water used for daily household activities and eating habits. We have focused our analysis on the two most water consuming components of the Danish water footprint : coffee and meat. To make matters worse, participants tended to severely underestimate the actual volumes by more than 50%, with even less accuracy for their indirect water footprint. After having established the low level of awareness of people living in Denmark towards their daily water consumption, we have tested the effectiveness of nudging techniques as a possible solution. By applying two nudges - disclosure and information - we have noted an increment in the likelihood of choosing less water consuming products. Findings of our research highlight the need to raise people’s awareness on their water footprint, while pointing up nudging techniques, specifically disclosure and information, as tools to steer consumers towards more mindful choices.