Innovative Solution

Barilla, Water Footprint, Blue Water Footprint, Carbon Footprint

technical

No.

Barilla with the support of an Italian breeder (PSB) , has developed a high quality variety of durum wheat, called Aureo and cultivated in Italy, that is similar to the Alamo variety cultivated in the desert area of the United States South-West. For its qualitative characteristics the Aureo is replacing the Alamo, produced in the United States. Since in that area the irrigation is the principal way to get water, this project lead to a large reduction of durum wheat water footprint, especially regarding the blue water. The project started in 2003 with the breeding project; 2010 was the second cultivation year; during the next  years we will continue until the total amount of Aureo wheat will replace the Alamo produced in Usa. The 2010 Aureo durum wheat production that substituted the Alamo amounts to 20.000 ton. Considering this quantity, Barilla measured a water footprint saving of about 20 million m3; the most of this amount represent the blue water. This big sum correspond approximately to 8.000 Olympic swimming pool. Regarding the greenhouse gas emissions, the shift of cultivation is leading to a reduction of about 1.000 ton in term of CO² eq, mainly due to decrease of transportation impacts. In fact, carrying  the wheat from United States to Italy requires approximately 14.000 kilometres: the wheat is moved from the field to the port, then it sails to Italy and when it arrives it’s directed  to the mills. On the contrary, in Italy the cultivations are in the proximity  of the mills and the kilometres from the yelds to the mills are maximum 100.

The solution is implemented in Italy.

PSB (Breader), Barilla G.R. F.lli (R&D, Purchase, HSE Dept), Italian Farmers, Life Cycle Engineering (LCA Analysis)

The initiative is a good point. We’re starting to replace the entire Alamo wheat produced in US with the Aureo wheat produced in Italy and we planned to finish this process by 2012.

It has been demonstrated that the 85% of human water footprint is related to the agricultural production, the 10% from the industrial production and only the 5% is linked to the domestic consumption. The sustainable agriculture could be defined as food production that makes the best use of nature’s goods and services while not damaging these assets (FAO). With this aim, Barilla is doing some interdisciplinary studies with an innovative approach, in order to lower the environmental impact of its activities in terms of greenhouse gasses emissions, ground exploitation and water consumption. Here below, an example of what Barilla is doing in terms of sustainable agriculture, mainly focused on the water used during the cultivation phase. In particular, this solution aims to reduce the blue water used in a huge quantity during the irrigation phase of the Alamo wheat in the West United States and aims to reduce the CO2 emissions due to the transportation from America to Italy.

In agriculture the sustainable solutions are geografically linked: move from a desert area to a rain fed area a crop cultivation reduce the blue water use.

We’re continuously monitoring our KPI (water and carbon footprint) due to the switch of cultivation from US to Italy. We’re sure that at the end of the process we’ll save millions m3 of water and will reduce the CO2 emissions.

This solution will work in all the Countries that promote cultivation in desert areas in order to encourage Institutions and Companies to try to find cultivation areas that need less blue water.

The main factors of success is the reduction of blue water togheter with a reduction of greenhouse gasses emissions due to the transportation from America to Italy.

The Italian Institution & Italian farmer association should commit this solution.

People should visit our think tank site: http://www.barillacfn.com/en/fg-overview. Person in charge of this solution: Luca Ruini Group Supply Chain HSE&E – Health, Safety, Environment & Energy Director Office +39 0521 26 3439 | email luca.ruini@barilla.com

Water Footprint reduction Durum Wheat Aureo Project: a ppt with some data and graphs.