The water Is one of the most important resources. Ancient civilizations used to respect it, there were gods representing the water.

Some facts Everyday 2 million of tones of sewage are throwing away around the world. The main problem occurs in undeveloped countries where about 70 % of industrial wastes are poured on surfaced waters (FAO and UNEP, 2010). The European Environment Agency estimates that wetlands around the world provide services, such as water purification and carbon absorption, which could be worth €2.5 billion a year (European Union, 2010).

Natural Resources Crisis Natural resource. everything that is obtained from the nature (Contreras, 2008). World Trade Organization (2010) defines natural resources as stocks of materials that exist in the natural environment that are both scarce and economically useful in production or consumption, either in their raw state or after a minimal amount of processing.

Thomas Robert Malthus ( ) Food production tends to increase arithmetically and population tends to increase naturally at a geometric rate

Natural Resources Importance Carbon sequestration. Getting nutrients from the nature. Global temperature regulation(*).

What’s happening Irrational consumption of natural resources Increasing of prices Scarcity of resources

Green Products The commission of the European Communities As one that uses fewer resources, has lower impacts and risks to the environment and prevents waste generation on each of its stages.

Talking more about green products The green term can be associated to a lot of aspects which can lead to creating a confusion of where the company should go towards becoming green (Dangelico and Pontrandolfo, 2010). Many terms are related with green products, such as: ecological, political, corporate social responsibility, equality, sustainability and fair trade (McDonagh and Prothero, 1996).

Green products advantages 1. Air quality. 2. Water quality. 3. Protection to the ground. 4. Waste reduction. 5. Energy saving. 6. Natural resources management. 7. Global warming. 8. Protection to the ozone layer. 9. Environmental security. 10. Noise 11. Biodiversity. The Regulation of the European Communities (EC) No 1980/2000 evaluated the following aspects for green products:

Green products, green products… Natural resources management Optimization of resources  Redesign of the process.  Eco friendly materials. Use of less raw materials Long term, savings

CASE OF STUDY THE LOK MAN SUN CHUEN Lau, Yang and Ma (2012), Lok Man Sun Chuen is one of the rental estates. Managed by Hong Kong Housing Society Installed equipment to save water like dual-flush toilets and rain water collecting system. Promoted the awareness of water saving

Water consumption comparison

Results and Discussions. REDUCTION OF WATER USE. In the study case, a reduction of 26% was reported, but in other cases for example Vagliasindi et all. (2011) reported a water conservation about 60%. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM In the case of Lau, Yang and Ma (2012) an educational program was implemented, but Vagliasindi et all. argued that the educational programs did not always improve the water saving effectiveness.

In Hong Kong reduction of water consumption is attributed by implementation of educational program saying that water saving devices, doesn’t matter how efficient they are, there will be a wasting water if they are operated by people with careless minds. Italy the water conservation was significantly different 60%, and they attribute the success in this program to the use of green products or ecological devices saying that educational programs don’t have an important impact in order to save water consumption.

Conclusions Green products are a solution to solve problems like natural resources crisis. The use of green products when we want to save resources like water depends of the context, for example in Hong Kong there was report of 26% of reduction in water consumption, but in Italy there was significant difference of 60% reduction.

More Conclusions In Hong Kong people attribute the success (water saving) on his program to the educational program in Italy the key were the green products. Difference between both results depends of many variables such as: Culture, perception, education and society which play an important role in the moment to take an environmental decision.

More, conclusions, conclusions, conclusions… Green products could seem as an expense in short term but in long term will be represented by profitable margins due to savings incurred to saving resources.