Water Savings Potential

Definition:

The Water Savings Potential of a solution is the estimated amount of water use that would be avoided if a particular solution was fully implemented.

Master Water Savings Potential Equation:

Water Savings Potential = ( Status Quo Water Footprint per Ton - Solution Water Footprint per Ton ) * Solution Diversion Potential

In ReFED’s data model, the following calculations are repeated for every sector, state, and food type before any aggregation is done.

Table 4. Calculations Performed to Estimate Water Reduction Potential of U.S. Food Waste Solutions

DATA ITEM	DATA SOURCE OR CALCULATION	EXAMPLE
Status Quo Water Footprint per Ton of Surplus Food Production	Food Waste Monitor, Water Footprint Network[3],[4] water use factors See Appendix E for more information. Currently, these water factors only account for the water used to produce the food. They do not account for any water use required for disposal.	ReFED estimates that the status quo average water footprint per ton of Prepared Foods being sent to “worse” destinations in the Florida Limited Service Restaurants Mexican Foodservice sector in 2021 was: 0 gallons of water use per ton Note: “Worse” destinations means that the destination must be lower priority than the destination that the solution would otherwise divert the food to. See Appendix C for a list of ReFED’s destination priorities. For this example, the solution diverts food to Donations, so “worse” destinations include anything from Animal Feed and below.
Water Footprint per Ton for Food Waste Solution	Water Footprint Network[3],[4] water use factors	The Water footprint factor for Donations is: 0 gallons per ton Note: ReFED is assuming that one ton of food prevention or donations results in one less ton of food production, which cancels out upstream water use.
Water Savings per Ton for Food Waste Solution	= Status Quo Water Footprint per Ton of Surplus Food Going to Worse Destinations - Water Footprint per Ton for Food Waste Solution	= 0 gallons of water use per ton status quo - 0 gallons of water use per ton for donations = 0 gallons of water use avoided per ton
Tons Prevented or Donated	For Prevention and Donations solutions: = Annual Solution Diversion Potential (See Diversion Potential calculations). For Recycling solutions: = 0 Because recycling food (composting, anaerobic digestion, etc.) won’t lead to less food production.	ReFED estimates that ‘Donation Storage Handling & Capacity’ could divert 93.35 tons of Prepared Foods Catering Overproduction annually in the Florida Limited Service Restaurants Mexican Foodservice sector.
Water Savings Potential of Food Waste Solution	= Water Savings per Ton for Food Waste Solution * Annual Solution Diversion Potential	= 0 gallons of water use avoided per ton * 93.35 tons diverted = 22,168,012 gallons of water saved Reminder: This example calculation is not the total water savings potential for the solution. These calculations were repeated for every sector, cause, food type, and state before aggregating and summing the total water savings potential for each solution.