According to the UN, the rate of progress on global water and sanitation must quadruple to give everyone access to clean water by 2030. Companies are the world’s largest water users,1 and so have a responsibility to do everything in their power to better manage this vital resource.
Water use is the most significant driver of material nature impacts in our own operations. We support global water resilience by reducing negative impacts on local water resources and working to solve shared water challenges in at-risk basins2 across our value chain.
Reducing freshwater use across our production sites
When it comes to water management, we aim to exert influence where it matters. We reduce the use of freshwater across our production sites by applying solutions such as optimised cooling, irrigation and domestic water systems; rainwater harvesting; and water reuse and circulation. Production sites are assessed annually for water risk using third-party tools WRI Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas and WWF Water Risk Filter, which helps to determine plans and resources required to meet each site’s water withdrawal reduction target.
Working with suppliers and customers
We also work proactively with our high impact water suppliers to understand and track their withdrawal rates and to focus our engagement where it is needed most. We are also taking action on water with our customers. Using state-of-the-art technologies such as membrane filtration and reverse osmosis, we can help cut water usage at customer sites.
1 2022 Source: World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/why-businesses-must-act-together-to-alleviate-the-global-water-crisis/.
2 At-risk basins are identified using the SBTN methodology, based on eight different indicators across water quantity, quality and wash. For each indicator, a score between 1 and 5 is attributed. Within these three categories, one indicator with a score of 3 or above indicates that the basin is at risk.