TEXT A 
      I used to look at mycloset and see clothes. These days, whenever I cast my eyes upon the stacks ofshoes and hangers of shirts, sweaters and jackets, I see water. 
      It takes 569 gallons to manufacture a T-shirt,from its start in the cotton fields to its appearance on store shelves. A pairof running shoes? 1,247 gallons. 
      Until last fall, Id been oblivious to my"water footprint", which is defined as the total volume of freshwaterthat is used to produce goods and services, according to the Water FootprintNetwork. The Dutch nonprofit has been working to raise awareness of freshwaterscarcity since 2008, but it was through the "Green Blue Book" byThomas M. Kostigen that I was able to see how my own actions factored in. 
      I've installedgray-water systems to reuse the wastewater from my laundry, machine and bathtuband reroute it to my landscape - systems that save, on average, 50 gallons ofwater per day. I've set up rainbarrels and infiltration pits to collect thousands of gallons of storm watercascading from my roof. I've even entered thelast bastion of greendom -installing a composting toilet. 
      Suffice to say, I've been feeling pretty satisfied with myself for allthe drinking water I've saved with thesebig-ticket projects. 
      Now I realize that my daily consumption choicescould have an even larger effect –not only on the local water supply but alsoglobally: 1.1 billion people have no access to freshwater, and, in the future,those who do have access will have less of it. 
      To see how much virtual water 1 was using, Ilogged on to the "Green Blue Book" website and used its waterfootprint calculator, entering my daily consumption habits. Tallying up thewater footprint of my breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, as well as my dailydose of over-the-counter uppers and downers - coffee, wine and beer- I’m using512 gallons of virtual water each day just to feed myself. 
      In a word: alarming. 
      Even more alarming was how much hiddenwater I was using to get dressed. I'm hardly a clotheshorse, but the few new items I buyonce again trumped the amount of water flowing from my faucets each day. If I'm serious about saving water, I realized I couldmake some simple lifestyle shifts. Looking more closely at the areas in my lifethat use the most virtual water, it was food and clothes, specifically meat,coffee and, oddly, blue jeans and leather jackets. 
      Being a motorcyclist, I own an unusually largeamount of leather - boots and jackets in particular. All of it is enormouslywater intensive. It takes 7,996 gallons to make a leather.jacket, leather beinga byproduct of beef. It takes 2,866 gallons of water to make a single pair ofblue jeans, because they're made fromwater-hogging cotton. 
      Crunching the numbers for the amount of clothesI buy every year, it looks a lot like my friends swimming pool. My entirecloset is borderline Olympic. 
      Gulp. 
      My late resolution is to buy some items used.Underwear and socks are, of course, exempt from this strategy, but 1 have noproblem shopping less and also shopping at Goodwill. In fact, I'd been doing that for the past year to savemoney. My clothes outrageous water footprint just feinforced it for me. 
      More conscious living and substitution, ratherthan sacrifice, are the prevailing ideas with the water footprint. Its one I'm trying, and that's had an unusual upside. I had a hamburger recently,and I enjoyed it a lot more since it is now an occasional treat rather than aweekly habit. 
(One gallon =3.8 litres)