Increasing freshwater consumption in industry and the impacts of industrial wastewater discharges bring enormous pressure on the sustainability of water resources for human living. Numerous approaches have been carried out to provide a solution for the global water problem. Polygeneration system is one of the promising strategies that carries great potential for natural resource sustainability, particularly water, in view of energy, environment, and economics. This paper presents a model of water polygeneration system with the objective of minimizing both freshwater consumption and wastewater generation. Water usage in a heat and power utility, a cooling utility, and chemical production are modeled simultaneously. A superstructure comprising three subsystems, i.e. heat and power generations, recirculating cooling water system, and chemical production, with wastewater treatment options, is introduced. To demonstrate the model application, a case study using mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model on the synthesis of optimum water polygeneration system is developed for an ethylene glycol production. © 2013 American Chemical Society.