Water Benchmarks in Guide Lines and Building Codes for Sustainability

Water may be defined a “renewable resource” and, if it is well managed, it should guarantee an infinite number of useful services. So lack or over-abundance of water may not be described as catastrophe: these conditions are the consequence of inadequate economic assets and blind policies. The directive CE 2000/60 analyses the needs of water users and stresses factors that govern them actions: thanks to monitoring and evaluating activities the directive defines a series of economic instruments and of frame to program water use and availability. The paper aims to list cares and standards that actually are recommended in studies about sustainable buildings (especially in Italian building codes and in others international tools to design sustainable building). The information will be purposed following the asset of CE 2000/60: every indication to get a “blue building” (and not only a “green building”) may be an additional input to improve projects and also Italian building codes.