Environmental NGO Friends of the Earth is calling for legislation requiring all large companies to report on their use of natural resources, including land, water and materials and their carbon emissions.

The call comes with the publication of a new report from FOE which estimates for the first time how much land and water well-known brands such as Apple, Kraft and Gap use in a year and what is required to manufacture some of the products they sell.

The ‘Mind your step’ report examines the land and water ‘footprints’ of a range of diverse products including smartphones, leather boots, coffee, chicken curry ready-meals, t-shirts, and milk chocolate.

The report is based on modelling by environmental data experts Trucost, who estimated how much land and water is required to make products and to sustain business operations, based on 2011/12 sales data, product lifecycle reports and Trucost’s Environmental Input-Output model. The land and water footprints reflect generic, rather than company-specific, products.

Trucost’s calculations also indicate the extent to which often controversial stages in the manufacture of these products - such as mining for metals and minerals, and water pollution from electronics assembly factories - contribute to the water and land footprints.

Among the report’s key findings:

• Nearly 13 tonnes of water and 18 square metres of land are required to make a smartphone, with two fifths of the water impact due to pollution at the component manufacturing and assembly phases;
• A pair of leather boots requires 14.5 tonnes of water. However, where leather tanneries dump untreated chemicals into the environment – as is common in tanning districts such as the Hazaribargh region of Dhaka, Bangladesh – this figure rises to 25 tonnes;
• Over one year Kraft is estimated to have required an area of land the size of Belgium just to make its range of chocolate products.

The Mind your step reveals which stages in a product’s manufacture require the most land and water, indicating just how much individual companies and whole sectors depend on natural resources to maintain their operations.

Commenting on the report, former European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said:

“The estimates provided in the Mind your step report are extremely useful reminders of how heavily we currently tread on the world. More than that, in a world of fragile economies and environments, they are signposts to how we can tread more lightly, while continuing to grow our economies and improve the wellbeing of our citizens.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for the new Government to commit the Treasury to reviewing the economic and environmental implications of the UK’s dependence on natural resources, and set up an Office of Resource Management to ensure the findings translate into policies for resource efficiency across the economy.

The NGO is also calling for legislation requiring all large companies to report on their use of natural resources, including land, water and materials and their carbon emissions.

Click here to download the full report