More water for tomorrow is in our hands today!

Do you remember where you were 19 years ago (in 2002)?

Definitely yes! If it seems like a lifetime has passed, the truth is that it probably also feels like yesterday...

It is this same time span, 19 years (that is, already in 2040), that we have, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI) 1, until Portugal was listed as one of the 26 countries at high risk of water stress two, This means that, in the current consumption scenario, we are preparing for a scenario of water scarcity, in just two decades, in Portugal 3.

Agriculture consumes around 75% of the water used in Portugal, followed by the urban sector - 20%, and industry 5%.4

What do soaps and cosmetics have to do with agriculture? Very!

To produce a soap, for example, the fat is essential; the percentage of vegetable oils used depends on soap for soap, but can be in the order of 70-95% of the final weight of a handmade soap; solid and dry shampoos also include many ingredients that come from agriculture (various vegetable and essential oils, butters, extracts). All these products have a water footprint as well as a carbon footprint.

How, at Soap 4 Life, do we contribute to a more resourceful future?

Continue reading below

Sources

1 - Water Resource Institute - WRI - you can explore the interactive map here, we collected this data between April and May 2021.
2 - The risk Water stress occurs when the ratio between consumption and availability of water becomes unbalanced; ie: where consumption represents significant percentages of average annual availabilities. These forecasts indicate that, in 2014, consumption will correspond to around 40 to 80% of the country's average annual availability.
3 - 'Use of Water in Portugal' - a study by the Gulbenkian Sustainable Development Programme; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Return On Ideas, March 2020.
4 - Idem, Ibidem, pp. 39, citing data from the National Environment Agency, 2015, for mainland Portugal - Does not consider water used in the energy sector

How Ec0p contributes

The challenge

Unfortunately, many essential ingredients for the production of natural cosmetics still do not have the information on their water footprint (PH) available and many of the existing studies have years when, ideally, the PH should be calculated every year, for each location because the Water needs and availability differ depending on these factors.

Despite these challenges and the lack of information, we consulted suppliers about its origin, and tried to obtain more information on the content (percentage) of water used. We always share the information available, as it is not always available in the same detail, you will see that in some ingredients it is more extensive and in others it is more succinct.

The objective with this 'water label' is to raise awareness and raise awareness, so that we can do better and better manage the impact of our choices.

The ingredients

We choose the ingredients of our formulations thinking about you and everyone's future, by optimizing the natural resources we consume. It is like? It's not easy, but it's simple:

• choice of ingredients taking into account their water footprint

We give priority to materials with a lower water footprint, reducing the final impact of our products, we also take into account the means of production, for example: the vegetable oils in our soap come from rainfed crops and the essential oil from a wild crop. This means that there is no use of artificial irrigation in these ingredients, this is not always synonymous with greater water efficiency, but as there are fewer energy inputs (greenhouses, automatic irrigation, etc) we reduce the impact at that level.

• choice of ingredients taking into account proximity (avoiding carbon emissions)

Whenever possible, we bet on national productions, and alternatively, the closest ones, avoiding importing from far away. Some fundamental products (such as coconut and derivatives, for example) only exist outside of Portugal and Europe, however we try to reduce their percentage in our formulations to the essential minimum.

• packaging

We chose to sell in bulk, to enable a sale with minimal packaging and in larger quantities. This step looks simple, but it's not easy! Packaging serves important functions (protection, packaging) and existing legislation in the European Union and in Portugal requires the delivery of a clear label along with the product. Our effort goes towards respecting the legislation and finding creative and efficient ways to reduce waste with disposable packaging, allowing the use of circular packaging, in the case of our dry shampoo, and alternatives (such as composting) for the sachets of our solid shampoos.

Water footprint of our ingredients (in update)