11.4.2 Types of water use per company

The type of water use visibly depends on the business sector. However, as appears from the collected data, the reviewed companies are generally aware of the environmental impacts of their business activities, including those related to freshwater scarcity. Companies involved in sectors where water consumption is not considered high such as banking or publishing indicated that freshwater scarcity is a concern. This type of 'low user' company mentions, for instance, that water use is monitored at its premises. Nonetheless, companies using more significant quantities of water in their operations are mostly the ones setting tangible targets for water reduction or emissions into water and taking concrete steps.

In addition, it was noted that multinational companies that are not con-sideredtobe 'big water users' can actually consume large quantities of freshwater as a result of the size of their operations. For example, although Shell said that its industry is not a big water user, the company reported using

574 million m3 of freshwater in 2007, approximately 0.01 per cent of the world's total (Shell, 2007). Multinational companies can therefore be considered important players in terms of reducing freshwater use, regardless of the sector in which they operate.