Water is essential to our value chain, communities in which we operate, and society as a whole.
From farming communities to manufacturing, we're transforming how we use, protect and conserve water across our value chain. Through smart technology, partnerships and community engagement, we're making every drop count while ensuring water access for future generations.
Water touches every aspect of our business and is vital for our suppliers and communities. Which is exactly why we're taking a fresh look at how we use it, where we can do better, and how we can protect this essential resource.
Beyond responsible water use, we actively assess and mitigate water-related risks across our operations and supply chain. We evaluate factors such as water availability, quality, and climate impacts, developing action plans to safeguard resources. Our alignment with the Alliance for Water Stewardship further strengthens our efforts, ensuring we go beyond water management to true water stewardship.
To show our commitment to do more and to learn from others, we have joined the Alliance for Water Stewardship. The Alliance is a collaboration of businesses, NGOs and the public sector, committed to the sustainability of local water resources. This includes adopting its global framework for the sustainable use of water – the International Water Stewardship Standard. Membership of AWS will help us moving from water management to water stewardship and protect water as a critical resource.
We actively assess and manage water-related risks in our factories, completing the first round of water risk assessments in 2020. We consider water availability and quality, legislation, natural disasters and future water stress, helping us develop action plans to reduce risk and improve water management and security.
Driven by our water reduction target, we’re looking for ways to improve water efficiency and reduce the amount of water used. Some process improvements are dry toilets, efficient faucets, new fire extinguishing systems, better humidification and wastewater treatment.
At our factories, water balancing helps us identify where water is lost and where we can improve.
Continual improvement as a key element of our environmental management system. It involves identifying main water use and improving processes that can affect water quality and quantity. Both internal and third-party audits assess our progress in water efficiency and management.
Water is a precious resource in many of our emerging markets. Since its launch in 2019, our WASH initiative aims to provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities to one million people by 2025.
People benefiting from our global WASH initiative
Water is increasingly scarce and conflicts for water will only get worse. We all need to do more to protect this precious resource.
From recycling wastewater to designing sustainable buildings, we’re implementing innovative solutions across the globe to conserve water and reduce our environmental impact.