With Deliberation n. 245, March 5, 2012, the Emilia-Romagna Region has formalized the Water Alliance of Life Plus AQUA Project.

The Water Alliance, approved by the Emilia-Romagna Region together with the promoters of the Life Plus AQUA Project (ARPA, Legacoop Agroalimentare, Legacoop Agroalimentare Nord Italia, Legacoop Emilia Romagna and Indica srl) and some supporting companies, aims to promote and regulate the distribution and application of the innovative Water Saving Kit, developed for companies in the agri-food industry wishing to reduce their water consumption and thus optimize the use of water resources.

Read more (in Italian).

Download the Water Alliance (in Italian).

Go to the Water Saving Kit Website (in Italian).

The Water Saving Kit is a tool available to companies for guiding their water saving and efficiency, using six steps: assessment of company conformity to the regulations in force, self-diagnosis of own consumption (in relation to average figures for the sector), in-depth study of the water processes and plants for the five chains analysed by the project, evaluation of improvement work and action plan.

If you are a company you can test immediately the Water Saving Kit and define your own Water Saving Strategy!

Europe 2020 is the EU's growth strategy for the coming decade, pushing the EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. Under the Europe 2020 strategy the flagship initiative for a resource-efficient Europe points the way towards sustainable growth and supports a shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy.

One of the building blocks of this initiative is the European Commission's Roadmap for a resource-efficient Europe.

The Roadmap builds upon and complements the other initiatives under the resource efficiency flagship, in particular the policy achievements towards a low carbon economy. It also takes into account progress made on the 2005 Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and the EU's strategy on sustainable development.

The Resource Efficiency Roadmap provides a framework in which future actions can be designed and implemented coherently. It sets out a vision for the structural and technological change needed up to 2050, with milestones to be reached by 2020. These milestones illustrate what will be needed to put Europe on a path to resource efficient and sustainable growth.

The Roadmap Communication proposes ways to increase resource productivity and decouple economic growth from resource use and its environmental impact. It explains how policies interrelate and build on each other. Areas where policy action can make a real difference are a particular focus, and specific bottlenecks like inconsistencies in policy and market failures are tackled to ensure that policies are all going in the same direction. Cross-cutting themes such as addressing prices that do not reflect the real costs of resource use and the need for more long-term innovative thinking are also in the spotlight. Key resources are analysed from a life-cycle and value-chain perspective. Nutrition, housing and mobility are the sectors responsible for most environmental impacts; actions in these areas are being proposed to complement existing measures.

Transforming the EU into a more resource efficient economy will require concerted action across a wide range of policies: the Commission proposes to launch a joint effort with stakeholders to work on defining the right indicators and targets for guiding actions and monitoring progress.

Find more information here:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/resource_efficiency/index_en.htm

The TV clip of the conference "Improvement of water use in the agri-food chain" of June 22, 2011 has been released.

The clip introduces the project and contains interviews with Sabrina Freda (Minister of Environment and Urban Renewal - Emilia-Romagna Region), Giovanni Luppi (President - Legacoop Agroalimentare), Stefano Tibaldi (Director General - ARPA Emilia-Romagna) and Gianpiero Calzolari (President - Granarolo).