Water is vital to food and beverage companies like Coca-Cola, which couldn't make and sell its array of products without this precious resource.

To strengthen and refine its approach to responsible water management, Coca-Cola performed a series of product water footprints around the world with assistance from The Nature Conservancy. The duo released a report outlining the results Wednesday, published in conjunction with World Water Week, which takes place through Saturday in Stockholm.

The various pilot tests led to a deeper understanding of water use in Coca-Cola's supply chains, the related impacts on local watersheds, and future water availability for communities and business needs.

The pair estimated that a half-liter of Coca-Cola has a green water footprint of 15 liters, a blue water footprint of 1 liter, and a grey water footprint of 12 liters. But the numbers mean little without the proper context, the partners claim. Overall, the process showed Coca-Cola and The Nature Conservancy that the largest water impacts can be traced to agricultural ingredients within its supply chain.

"More important than the numbers associated with a water footprint are the impacts of water use," Brian Richter, The Nature Conservancy's freshwater program co-director, said in a statement. "When properly managed, even large volumes of water use can be sustainable in locations where the resource is sufficient to support the use and sustain ecological health. The number associated with a water footprint is not the end game, but rather a starting point to addressing the sustainability of the water source."

The foundation of the report, "Product Water Footprint Assessments: Practical Application in Corporate Water Stewardship" (PDF) is comprised of three water footprint assessments, including a half-liter bottle of Coca-Cola produced in the Netherlands, beet sugar used in its European bottling plants, and two types of orange juice made for the North American market.

The pair were able to break down and examine the water footprints' components in order to assess impacts in the context of local watersheds. The analyses considered both indirect and direct water use, in addition to water type. Green water, for example, refers to rainwater stored as moisture in soil, while surface and ground water is called blue water. Grey water is defined as the amount of freshwater needed to assimilate pollutants, based on water quality standards.

For more on the report, see Marc Gunther's analysis of the report, which is available for free download.

Image CC licensed by Flickr user Coyote Grafix.