vocational education

Meet Water Footprint, the lesser known footprint.

Our Roving Reporter

Chances are your students have heard the term carbon footprint tossed around in class, the news, or maybe even on TikTok. This term is commonly used when discussing ways to lessen our environmental impact. But here’s the thing: there’s another, less talked about player in the sustainability game: the water footprint. And in a country like Australia, the driest inhabited continent on Earthit deserves just as much attention.

The carbon footprint gets the spotlight because of its clear link to climate change, but our water use, both the stuff we see (showers, taps, sprinklers) and the stuff we don’t (water used to grow our food or make our clothes), plays a giant role in environmental sustainability too. Helping students understand their water and carbon footprints together gives them a more complete picture of how their everyday choices impact the world around them.

This blog is for secondary teachers working with Years 7–10, especially here in WA. We’ll break down these two footprints in a way that clicks with students, tie it into the Sustainability Cross-Curriculum Priority, and share some eye-opening stats and stories from across Australia. It’s not about doom and gloom; it’s about showing young people they’ve got the power to make smarter, more sustainable choices in their everyday lives.

Carbon Footprint: More Than Just a Buzzword

So, what exactly is a carbon footprint? Put simply, it’s the total amount of greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide) released into the atmosphere by our activities and choices. Every time we drive, charge our laptops, or throw away food, we increase our carbon footprint a little bit. Over time it adds up, especially in a country like Australia, where each person’s carbon emissions are pretty high. In fact, in the year to March 2023, the average Australian was responsible for about 17.8 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions. 😮 That’s among the highest per-person rates in the developed world. Why so high? One reason is that our energy has long come from fossil fuels (think coal and gas), and many of us rely on cars to get around the wide-open Aussie landscape.

Why it matters: All these carbon emissions are contributing to climate change, which isn’t some far-off theory; it’s something we’re already seeing and feeling. Australia is the driest inhabited continent, and we’re uniquely vulnerable to climate shifts. Climate change has real consequences, including more extreme heat days, intense bushfires, droughts, and floods. (Remember the horrific bushfire season of 2019–20?)? Or the droughts that left parts of regional Australia hurting for years?) Climate change is happening now, and cutting our carbon footprints is about slowing it down. For our students in Western Australia, the South-west land division has already experienced about a 10–20% drop in rainfall since the 1970s, which many scientists attribute partly to global warming. Less rain = more water stress, and that brings us to the other footprint we need to talk about…

Water Footprint: Every Drop Counts

We all know water is precious, but the concept of a water footprint might be new to some students. A water footprint is the total volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services we consume. This includes the water we directly use (like for drinking, cooking, and showering) and the “hidden” water in the products we buy and food we eat. In Australia, we tend to be big water users. Here in Perth and across WA, people historically used hundreds of litres of water per person each day. A 2017 study found Perth households averaged around 246 litres per person per day at home, much higher than cities like Melbourne. (It’s gotten better with awareness, but we’re still pretty thirsty in WA!)

Why it matters: Australia’s dryness means water can’t be taken for granted. We’ve experienced harsh droughts, and even though Perth now supplements supply with desalination and groundwater, using less water is crucial for sustainability. When we waste less water, we leave more in our dams, rivers, and aquifers for the environment and future use. Reducing water use also saves energy; consider this: using less water to pump, treat, and heat results in lower energy consumption, which contributes to a smaller carbon footprint. And water usage isn’t just about what comes out of the tap. It might surprise your students that their everyday choices have a hidden water cost. For example, producing a single beef burger can take about 2,400 litres of water, most of which is used to grow cattle feed. Even a pair of denim jeans might have a water footprint around 10,000 litres, thanks to the water-intensive process of growing cotton and manufacturing. 😲 These eye-popping numbers can help students realise that saving water isn’t only about taking shorter showers; it’s also about thinking about the water embedded in our food and clothes.

Real-Life Impacts: Why Footprints Need Shrinking

It’s important to connect these footprints to real-life impacts that students can grasp. Here are a few key points you can share in class to drive the message home (without sounding preachy):

Climate and Environment: Cutting carbon emissions means reducing the risks of extreme weather and ecological damage. Less CO₂ = less global warming. This could mean a lower chance of catastrophic bushfire seasons and heatwaves in their lifetime. Australia’s recent climate extremes (from the “Black Summer” fires to severe floods) illustrate what’s at stake. As the climate warms, events like these become more likely, so every bit of emission reduction helps. Likewise, saving water helps protect our ecosystems (like keeping more water in Perth’s groundwater so wetlands and wildlife don’t dry out). In a nutshell, reducing footprints is about caring for country, an idea that resonates with the First Nations’ perspectives and our curriculum’s focus on sustainability and social justice.
Our Communities: Large carbon footprints often accompany air pollution, such as vehicle exhaust, and can have a negative impact on health. By using bikes or public transport more, we not only cut carbon, we can also enjoy cleaner air and healthier, more active lifestyles. With water, using less means our communities are more resilient in droughts. During the Millennium Drought, cities like Melbourne pushed hard to save water (remember the “Target 155” campaign for 155 litres per person per day?). Perth didn’t face the same crisis thanks to desalination, but we’ve had our own campaigns; for instance, The Watercorp’s Water Wise campaign saved over 800 million litres of water across a three year period. 😱 Imagine hundreds of homes fixing leaks and shaving a minute off their showers; this effort can save millions of litres across the community and keep more water in our dams.
Future Generations: Ultimately, shrinking our footprints is about the future. Students today are inheriting a world of challenges but also the opportunity to innovate solutions. When they reduce their footprints, they’re part of a bigger movement to ensure future generations (their kids and grandkids) have a healthy planet with a stable climate and sufficient water. This type of futures thinking is precisely what the Australian Curriculum encourages. It’s empowering for students to know that their actions, however small, collectively add up.

Everyday Choices That Students Can Relate To

One way to engage students is to connect big issues like climate change and water scarcity to everyday life choices. Here are some relatable examples you can discuss or even challenge your class to think about:

Getting Around: Transport is Australia’s third-largest source of greenhouse emissions (about 21% of our emissions, mostly from vehicles). Ask students how they come to school. Could they walk, ride a bike, or skateboard instead of getting a car ride? How about carpooling or taking public transport? For a Year 7–10 student, choosing an active or public transport option a few days a week can significantly shrink their carbon footprint (and maybe give them a bit of adventure or independence!). Plus, fewer cars on the road = less traffic and pollution for everyone.
Power Habits at Home and School: Aussie households use a lot of electricity, often generated from fossil fuels, which means more carbon emissions. Encourage students to be the eco-hero at home: turn off lights and fans when they’re not needed, shut down gaming consoles and PCs instead of leaving them on standby, and on hot days, use the fan or an open window before cranking the air-con. At school, simple actions like switching off classroom lights and projectors during lunch or unplugging chargers can add up (and schools will love the lower power bills!). Fun fact: Several WA schools joined a “Low Carbon Schools” pilot and managed to cut their electricity use by an average of 16% per student over two years just through awareness and small changes. 🤩 That translated to an overall carbon emissions drop of about 8% across those schools. Real proof that little habits = big impact.
Water-Savvy Living: Challenge your students with the idea of “every drop counts.” Long showers and running taps are common culprits for water waste. Did you know a typical showerhead can use around 9–12 litres per minute? Shaving just 1 minute off a daily shower can save around 8–10 litres of water each time. Over a year, that’s thousands of litres saved by one person. And if an entire class of 30 all did this, we’re talking tens of thousands of litres! Encourage students to be mindful: turn off the tap while brushing teeth (no one needs Niagara Falls gushing down the sink for those two minutes 😅), use a half-flush on the toilet, and fix dripping taps (remember that 7,000 L/year stat!). At school, they can make sure taps in bathrooms aren’t left running and report any leaks to a teacher. Even things like watering the school veggie patch in the morning or late afternoon (when less water evaporates) teach them to think smart about water.
Food and Diet: This one can get really interesting for students. The way we eat has a footprint. Australia has a heavy meat-based food culture, and while there is nothing wrong with enjoying a good barbie, it’s important to know that producing meat (especially beef and lamb) generates a significant amount of greenhouse gases and consumes a lot of water. You don’t need to push for everyone to go vegetarian; even just introducing the idea of having a “meat-free Monday” or choosing chicken over beef occasionally can spark discussion. Livestock (cows especially) produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and use up resources (like all that water for a burger we mentioned). Also, food waste is a huge issue: when we throw food away, all the energy and water that went into growing, transporting, and packaging it go to waste, and the food rotting in landfills produces methane. Encourage students to only take what they’ll eat (in the cafeteria or at home) and get creative with leftovers. Maybe start a compost bin at school for food scraps; it’s a great science tie-in and reduces waste.
Stuff & Consumption: Most teens love their gadgets, clothes, and accessories. Here’s a chance to discuss the idea of “buy less, use longer.” Manufacturing new products has both carbon and water footprints, from the electricity in factories (often coal-powered in some countries) to the water used in production. For example, that fast fashion t-shirt or new pair of jeans has an environmental cost before it even hits the store. Encourage students to value their stuff: repair items, hand them down, or thrift-shop for a unique style. Reusing a water bottle or lunch container, as opposed to single-use ones, also conserves the energy and water required for the production of new plastic. These choices not only reduce footprints but often save money, something even teenagers can get behind!

Aussie Stats and Stories to Inspire Students

Throwing in some local success stories and figures can really ground the discussion and show students that we’re all in this together. Here are a couple of Australian (and WA-flavoured) examples that you might share:

Western Australian Water Warriors: Our state has been actively promoting water conservation, especially in schools. Over the past few years, the Water Corporation’s Waterwise Schools Programme (in partnership with the Dept. of Education) helped 65 public schools upgrade plumbing, fix leaks, and educate students about water. The result? We expect those schools to use about 11% less water annually. Collectively, they’re on track to save nearly half a billion litres of water; that’s 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water! All They have achieved this through simple fixes and smarter use. How cool is that? You could challenge your class: “What would it take for our school to save 11% of its water?”. You might get some imaginative answers.
Schools Leading on Carbon Cuts: Across Australia, more schools are embracing sustainability. Solar panels on roofs, student-led environment clubs, and even audits of energy use are becoming common. In the Low Carbon Schools pilot in Perth, a group of schools swapped ideas like installing LED lights, setting computers to sleep mode, and students doing “energy patrols” to switch things off. One school managed to cut its electricity usage significantly, and others weren’t far behind, as mentioned earlier (double-digit percentage drops in power use). By the end of the programme, all 13 schools had reduced carbon emissions per student. It’s a great example to share with your students: schools just like theirs are making a tangible difference. Maybe it sparks a bit of friendly competition: “if they can do 16%, what can we do?” 🙌
Youth Power and Awareness: It’s also worth noting how passionate many Aussie teens are about the environment. From the large turnouts at events like School Strike 4 Climate to local kids doing clean-up days on the beach, there’s a real desire to act. Highlighting this can make your students feel part of something bigger. Reducing footprints isn’t just a personal task; it’s a collective movement. When students bike to school or bring a reusable water bottle, they join thousands of others doing the same across the country. Small actions, big collective impact, that’s the sigma vibe to emphasise, no cap.

Tools & Resources: Take the Learning Further

One way to really engage students is to let them measure their footprints and track improvements. Fortunately, there are some fantastic (and free) online tools and platforms for this. Here are a few teacher-and-student-friendly resources you might find useful:

Carbon Footprint Calculators: Try the interactive calculator from Carbon Positive Australia; it’s an Aussie-based tool where students (or their families) can input details about home energy use, transport, etc., and get an estimate of their household carbon footprint. It even suggests practical steps to cut down. Another fun one is the WWF’s Ecological Footprint Quiz (available via WWF Australia); after a series of lifestyle questions, it gives you your carbon output and calculates how many “Earths” we’d need if everyone lived like you (a real eye-opener for students!). For a quick option, the United Nations “Offset” Calculator is a simple way to get a snapshot of personal CO₂ emissions. These tools make abstract concepts tangible; suddenly “carbon footprint” isn’t just a number on a board, it’s your number, and you can watch it shrink with simple changes.
Water Use Calculators: To complement the carbon tools, you can have students try a water footprint calculator. The Water Footprint Network has a Personal Water Footprint tool that lets you estimate how much water your daily habits and diet consume (including that hidden water in food and products). There’s also the Water Use Calculator by some local water utilities (for example, Hunter Water in NSW has an online one), which guides you through questions about showers, laundry, etc., and shows where most of your water is going. These can be a real revelation: students might be surprised that long showers or garden sprinklers outweigh everything else or that diet is a big factor. It can prompt great discussions: “Where can I save the most water, personally?” or “How do my choices compare to the Aussie average?”
Reliable Info & Lesson Ideas: The Australian Government’s sustainability and climate websites (check out the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment, and Water) have up-to-date statistics, reports, and even school-focused content on topics like reducing transport emissions and saving energy. The Australian Curriculum website has a section on the Sustainability Cross-Curriculum Priority that can give you more insight into the key ideas we’re aiming to instill. Additionally, educational organisations like Cool Australia and Sustainable Victoria offer teacher resources and case studies. While we’re avoiding specific classroom activities in this post, those sites can equip you with factual snippets or multimedia content to enrich your lessons. And if your students want to take action beyond the classroom, point them to groups like AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) or local council sustainability programmes for youth platforms where they can learn more and even get involved in projects.

Conclusion: Empowering Students for a Sustainable Future

By now, hopefully you’re feeling more excited (and less daunted) about tackling carbon and water footprints with your students. The key takeaway to give them is optimism and empowerment. Yes, climate change and water scarcity are big issues, but there’s good news in the mix. We have the knowledge and tools to make positive changes. Our students’ generation is arguably the most environmentally aware ever, and with our guidance, they can move from awareness to action.

Reducing our footprints isn’t about depriving ourselves or making life dull. It’s about smart choices and respecting our planet’s limits while improving life for everyone. It can be fun and rewarding, like the challenge of a shorter-shower stopwatch, or the pride in biking to school, or the teamwork of a class project to boost recycling. When students see that their actions (and collective efforts) lead to real results like a lower power bill for the school or a flourishing school garden that uses tank rainwater, they feel empowered. They learn that sustainability isn’t just a school topic; it’s a way of life that they are part of.

As Australian educators, we’re not just teaching facts and figures; we’re nurturing informed, responsible citizens who care about the world around them. And judging by the enthusiasm many teens show for environmental issues, we’rwe're stepping into a welcoming environment let’s keep the tone positive and solutions-focused. Share those success stories, celebrate small wins (“Our class cut food waste by 50% this term, woohoo!”), and remind students that their choices matter.

In the spirit of the sustainability cross-curriculum priority, we are equipping young people with the values of care, respect, and responsibility, and that’s education at its best. 🌏💚

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