Water footprint an indicator to manage water resource. The case of Italian olive oil.

It is long time since the efforts of researchers, politicians and decision makers are engaged, overall the world, to find the “recipe” to reach a sustainable economic growth. Even if significant steps are made, it is still far the final goal. In this contest, growing is the international interest towards Material Accounting and Material Indicators, useful tools to evaluate human activities impacts on natural system (air, water, ground, fauna, flora and climate). According to the common certainty that water scarcity will be one of the first limits to the future growth, the objective of this paper is to evaluate if a specific material indicator, the “Water footprint” (WF), represents a profitable tool to manage water natural resources. The aim is to underline pros and cons of this tool for private managers and public decision makers. In particular, WF has been applied to a specific product, the Italian extra virgin olive oil, with the aim to evaluate the effects of olive oil production chain on domestic water resource and to highlight suggestions for managers.