1 Luxury food

The cultivation of tea is harmless as far as the amount of virtual water is concerned. However, it becomes problematic when the use of pesticides causes damage to groundwater and surface waters.

2 Cotton products

More and more manufacturers are moving to Asia's low-wage countries (e.g. China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India) to produce clothing. It is always more environmentally friendly - especially with regard to virtual water consumption - to place more value on longevity and quality in clothing.

3 Tropical fruits

In order to conserve foreign water resources, the consumption of tropical fruits should be reduced and, as far as possible, covered by fair trade and organic production. We can also ensure a healthy and tasty diet rich in vitamins through our regional fruit and vegetable varieties.

4 Greenhouses

We import more and more agricultural products from warm and sunny southern countries. But this is precisely why the water shortage is becoming more and more acute there. The virtual water balance can be considerably improved through the seasonal purchase of fruit and vegetables from one's own home region.

5 Communication

Even though most of the virtual water flows into agricultural products, the share used worldwide for industrial goods is still around 23 percent. The useful life of a mobile phone is short: if it were to be used for just one more year, about one third of the water could be saved.

6 Paper

A DIN A4 sheet of writing paper made from fresh cellulose contains 10 litres of virtual water. The use of recycled paper is one of the most important measures to reduce virtual water consumption. When buying new paper, it makes sense to pay attention to sustainable cultivation ( seal of quality such as FSC or PEFC ).

7 Agricultural products

The massive increase in meat consumption is accompanied by the expansion of intensive livestock farming, which relies almost exclusively on concentrated feed and thus leads to an extremely high consumption of virtual water. Conscious and economical consumption of animal products contributes significantly to reducing this water consumption.

8 Food

Wherever many people live, they consume huge amounts of virtual water, which is constantly transported around the globe with the goods. Germany's total water footprint therefore amounts to 120 billion cubic meters per year.