Table 1.

Advantages and drawbacks of water, ecological, and carbon footprints.

	Carbon Footprint	Ecological Footprint	Water Footprint
Advantages	enables a comprehensive assessment of greenhouse gas emissions; complies with economic and environmental reporting standards; includes the emissions of all gases showing greenhouse potential; the emission data obtained are comparable and available to most countries.	enables comparative analysis of human demand for renewable resources and expresses human needs related to the absorption of emissions and waste concerning the “supply” of nature; enables aggregated assessment of various anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystem; is easy to communicate and understand, and contains a strong message about the protection of natural goods; identifies human impact on Earth’s ecosystem and biodiversity and measures its negative impact.	expresses the need for water resources on a micro (product, technology, enterprise) and macro (region, country, planet) scale; extends traditional water intake measurements, shows the relationship between local consumption and the global distribution of freshwater; integrates water use and pollution in the production chain.
Drawbacks	focuses on only one category of environmental impact, omits other equally critical environmental aspects; cannot follow the full range of human needs for the environment; additional impact assessment models are needed to analyze the impact of climate change at national and subnational levels.	does not cover all aspects of sustainable development or all environmental issues; especially those for which there is no renewable potential; shows which factors can lead to degradation of natural capital (e.g., reduced land quality or reduced biodiversity) but does not forecast such degradation; is geographically ambiguous.	it only tracks human demand for freshwater; relies on local data, often not available or difficult to obtain; calculations for gray water are based on assumptions and estimations; depending on local water purity standards; calculations for gray water may be different for the same products or technologies in different regions.