Business Water Footprint Accounting: International and Italian Pasta Production

The concept of water footprint can be applied to business companies to provide indications aboutthe sustainability of their production process and the global impact on water resources.The objective of this study is the water footprint accounting of an hypothetical pasta factorymaking a comparison between an international and an Italian pasta production.When the pasta factory takes its raw materials from France, Australia and Italy, it uses 1847 m3 ofwater per each ton of pasta, while assuming an Italian origin about durum wheat cultivation, thebusiness water footprint rises to 2360 m3/ton.These results depend on the production site, local environment conditions and agriculturaltechniques used to cultivate durum wheat needed to produce wheat semolina and then dry pasta.Although Italy is one of the most productive country in this food sector, it is clear that anhypothetical italian pasta factory could create a major impact on water resources trough processingnational wheat than foreign one.