Identifying an appropriate scheme in utilizing water in any industrial system is an essential response to alleviate the effects of climate change. Water footprint (WFP) is a method of measuring freshwater appropriation on different levels – national, corporate, activity, or product. It allows a company to measure its direct and indirect freshwater consumption to identify possible interventions to reduce water consumption. Existing studies on water footprint mainly focused on the assessment but failed to use it for prescriptive modelling in the supply chain where the decisions are affected by the WFP assessments. In this study, we develop an optimization model for supplier selection in a supply chain to minimize both the costs and water footprints to produce a product. The model considers sourcing raw materials with differences in prices and water footprints depending on the source. The model is demonstrated on a case study adapted from industry data. The results of the analysis show the that the water footprint of the raw materials can affect the company’s decisions on procuring their materials when the level of priority for the water footprint is set to at least 40 %. The study proves that consideration of the water footprint in a supply chain model can balance the effect of choosing the lowest cost.
