Water footprint accounting to support raw material selection: a case study of a paper company

Water use and consumption has become a main issue debated at international level. Many companies are facing relevant risks such as water resource availability, accessibility and image among stakeholders that a&ect their market and competitiveness. To support companies in the management of such risks at product level, the concept of Water Footprint emerged. In this paper the water footprint accounting of a tissue paper produced in Italy is performed using the method developed by Hoekstra (Hoekstra et al., 2011) adopting a life cycle perspective. "e objective of the study were to support the company in the chemical pulp selection, the main raw material used to produce the tissue paper, through the use of water footprint accounting indicator. A cradle to gate approach is used, from raw material selection to tissue paper production in Italy. Data refer to 2011 and are obtained from di&erent sources: on site data and literature data. Considering the characteristic of the tissue paper, the study took in consideration the main chemical pulp suppliers of the company, their location (Brazil, Chile, USA), the speci'c meteorological condition of the harvesting and production sites, the supplier operation and the di&erent typologies of tree used. "e results of the study shows how the 'nal product water footprint accounting, that ranges from 1.008 m/ton3 to 5.090 tm3/ton, is highly in1uenced by the choice of the chemical pulp (from 96% to 99% of the overall water footprint accounting) and that the main contribution is from green water footprint. Suppliers from Brazil harvesting pine trees, because of the low level of evapotranspiration and forest management practices, resulted to be the ones with lowest green water footprint and therefore the preferable for raw material selection in the speci'c case study. "e results helped the company to integrate environmental issues within supply chain management, supporting strategies to reduce 'nal product water footprint