Corporate water footprint: applicable regulations, how to calculate it and what tools to use

If your company has been asked whether it's required to report its corporate water footprint, the short answer is: it depends on which regulation applies to you, but more clients, investors and authorities are asking for it even without a specific law forcing your hand. Here's which regulations to check, how to calculate it, and which tools to use.

Am I required to report my water footprint?

Spain doesn't have a single law mandating water footprint calculation the way it does for carbon footprint. But water enters through several regulatory paths:

• CSRD and ESRS E3: if your company reports under CSRD, the ESRS E3 standard (water and marine resources) requires disclosing consumption, water-related risk, and reduction targets. Since Directive (EU) 2026/470 the scope has narrowed to companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than 450 million euros in net turnover, with the revised ESRS applying to financial years starting on or after 1 January 2027.
• Client and investor demands: even if you don't report under CSRD, more procurement processes and investment due diligence now ask for water data, especially in water-intensive sectors (textiles, food, industry).
• Regional and river-basin regulations: some river basin authorities and regional governments require consumption and discharge declarations at facility level.

If you're not sure which obligations apply to you, Manglai's environmental obligations diagnostic tool can clear that up in a few minutes.

How is corporate water footprint calculated?

The calculation relies on two complementary frameworks:

• ISO 14046: the international reference standard, based on life cycle assessment, that evaluates the impact of water consumption and pollution.
• Water Footprint Network: distinguishes three components of water consumed, which should be measured separately.

Those three components are:

• Blue water footprint: surface and groundwater consumed directly in processes and facilities.
• Green water footprint: rainwater stored in soil and used, most relevant for agricultural raw materials.
• Grey water footprint: the volume of water needed to dilute discharged pollutants down to safe levels.

On top of that comes the distinction between direct and indirect footprint: what your facility consumes versus the water embedded in the raw materials, energy and services you buy. In many sectors, the indirect footprint outweighs the direct one, largely because of the water-energy nexus: the more energy your operation consumes, the more water comes attached to it indirectly.

What tool should I use to calculate it?

Doing it in a spreadsheet works fine with a single site and a handful of processes. It stops working the moment several plants, suppliers and consumption types enter the picture. The practical options are:

• Spreadsheets: fine for an initial diagnostic, but they lack traceability and audit-readiness as data volume grows.
• External consultants: bring methodology, but each reporting cycle depends on a fresh engagement, with no continuity between years.
• An AI-powered platform: centralizes the data, keeps it updated in real time, and automates the most time-consuming part: collection.

Manglai's water footprint solution, developed together with Veolia Spain, calculates blue, green and grey water footprint automatically and adds water stress indicators by location. Manglai's AI reads water invoices in any format or language and assigns them to the right site, just as it does with your other environmental consumption data.

If your sector is particularly water-intensive through packaging, it's also worth checking our comparison of water footprint software for packaging.