Designing a Water Footprint Compensation Platform

Water Footprint Implementation provides insights and solutions to organisations and government agencies that want to reduce their water footprints. We partnered with WFI to co-design a Water Footprint Compensation Platform that will allow organisations to compensate their water footprints by supporting water projects around the world.

Above: Photo by frimufilm on freepik.


Partners

Water Footprint Implementation


Locations

Global


Sector

Water


Services

Prototyping

The challenge

There is a growing awareness and concern about the effects of water scarcity on communities and ecosystems, as well as economic activities such as agriculture, industry, and energy production. There are a variety of activities and initiatives that can effectively reduce water footprints, from water conservation projects to changes in agricultural practices. These projects need funding in order to be implemented and scaled up.

The solution

WFI identified a need to connect organisations or entities that are looking to compensate for their water footprints with projects that contribute to the replenishment, restoration, and protection of our water systems. These projects often lack resources, which can be provided by private organisations which want to become water-neutral or water-positive through compensation. With Akvo’s design, data and technology expertise, as well as our 15+ years in the water sector, we were able to design a prototype that took into account the technical requirements, the various data flows, and the diverse needs of the end users.

Above: A prototype of the Water Footprint Compensation Platform.

The impact

The prototype of the Water Footprint Compensation Platform was launched at the UN Water conference 2023 in New York. We’re now entering into phase II of the project, in which we’ll test the prototype with a larger group of end users and then build the live version of the platform.

So far, WFI has funded 2,344 projects and compensated over 12 million litres of water. This new digital platform can play a valuable role in supporting the implementation of sustainable water management practices, programmes, and initiatives globally.