Total water consumption calculated as withdrawal minus discharge
Measurement answer
What this metric measures
Reports total water consumption in cubic metres, calculated as total water withdrawal less total water discharge.
Specification
Metric specification
- Result format
- Single value
- Unit
- m³ — source-defined reporting unit
- Reporting basis
- Reporting period covered by the water-consumption disclosure
- Aggregation
- Reported total water withdrawal less reported total water discharge for the same reporting period and boundary
- Pillar
- Environmental
- Topic
- Water consumption
- Controlled domain
- Water and marine resources
- Entity type
- Metric
Reporting boundary
Water withdrawals and discharges included in the organization's reported calculation; the extracted evidence does not further specify direct-operation, value-chain, geographic, or water-stress scope
Verified source occurrences
Framework coverage
This is one canonical metric. The bindings below show every verified framework occurrence without creating duplicate metric pages. Edition, disclosure, role, and relationship remain source-specific.
- Adopting Disclosurewater-consumption
EU Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard
- Publisher
- European Commission / EFRAG
- Edition
- Commission delegated act adopted 3 July 2026; pending Official Journal publication
- Requirement
- Conditional
- Relationship
- Reuses Canonical Metric
- Mapping outcome
- Reused
- Source locator
- Annex I paragraph 37
- Adopting Disclosure2a-total-water-consumption
SEBI BRSR Core
- Publisher
- Securities and Exchange Board of India
- Edition
- BRSR Core Annexure 17A in the SEBI LODR Master Circular updated 30 January 2026, incorporating the 28 March 2025 amendments
- Requirement
- Conditional
- Relationship
- Reuses Canonical Metric
- Mapping outcome
- Reused
- Source locator
- Annexure 17A, printed page 214 of the 2026 Master Circular
- Adopting DisclosureSource evidence
TNFD Recommendations
- Publisher
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
- Edition
- September 2023
- Requirement
- Not Specified
- Relationship
- Defines Disclosure
- Mapping outcome
- Direct Evidence
- Source locator
- Page 91, metric A3.0
- Adopting Disclosure38d42194f74f9a5002e6
TNFD Recommendations
- Publisher
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
- Edition
- September 2023
- Requirement
- Not Specified
- Relationship
- Maps Source Identity
- Mapping outcome
- Published
- Source locator
- Page 91, metric A3.0
Value structure
Dimensions and units
- Unit
- m³ — source-defined reporting unit
- Reporting basis
- Reporting period covered by the water-consumption disclosure
Unit meaning: Values use m³ under the disclosed TNFD Recommendations method, period, location and reporting boundary.
Published dimensions
- water-flow component: withdrawal
- water-flow component: discharge
- calculation method: withdrawal minus discharge
Calculation method
Formula information
- Status
- Specified
- Formula type
- Difference
Formula
Water consumption = total water withdrawn − total water discharged.Apply the source-defined TNFD Recommendations method only within the disclosed location, ecosystem and value-chain boundary. This is a standalone calculated water-consumption outcome specified by TNFD A3.0. It is retained as an optional additional TNFD metric and not matched to the existing water-consumption metric because the extracted TNFD evidence does not establish the same own-operations boundary or other scope conditions.
Variables
| Symbol | Variable | Definition | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
W | Total water withdrawn | Total volume of water withdrawn included in the reported calculation. | m³ |
D | Total water discharged | Total volume of water discharged included in the reported calculation. | m³ |
C | Total water consumption | Calculated water consumption for the reporting period. | m³ |
Verified sources
Evidence and status sources
Sustopedia checked each record-specific claim directly against primary publisher material. Labels distinguish current measurement authority from future compatibility and corroborative, legal, edition, or method status context. Corroborative evidence can support a stated limitation but cannot establish the core measurement by itself.
Measurement evidence
- Measurement evidenceChecked 27 August 2026
Recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
- Publisher
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
- Edition
- September 2023
- Locator
- Page 91, metric A3.0
Supports: The official TNFD Recommendations source supports the identity, boundary and method basis of “Total water consumption calculated as withdrawal minus discharge”.
Open official source
Use with context
Interpretation boundaries
Method disclosures required
Source-edition basis: Recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, September 2023.
- Disclose the water-withdrawal volume and water-discharge volume used in the calculation.
- Confirm that withdrawal and discharge use the same reporting period and organizational boundary.
- Describe measurement, estimation, and any treatment of water flows not captured as discharge.
- State the operational, geographic, and value-chain scope used for the calculation.
Record-specific limitations
- The extracted evidence does not establish a direct-operations-only, upstream, downstream, site, basin, geography, or water-stress boundary.
- Water consumption calculated from withdrawal less discharge should not be treated as interchangeable with a separately defined consumption metric using a different operational or hydrological boundary.
- The candidate label refers to withdrawal and consumption, but the supplied calculation defines the reported outcome as consumption.
Interpret this metric with the stated reporting boundary, period convention, value shape, and unit. Results prepared with different boundaries or conventions may not be directly comparable.
Measurement evidence supports the core record-specific claims described above. Corroborative evidence can support limitations, while compatibility and status sources provide their separately labelled context. None of these cards by itself determines an organisation's legal applicability, filing readiness, assurance status, or compliance conclusion.