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Nestlé Waters has announced that it will extend its commitment to water stewardship by certifying all of its sites to the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard by 2025.
The global standard promotes responsible water use that benefits local communities socially and economically, while ensuring environmental sustainability of watersheds – all priorities for Nestlé. Since first committing to the AWS Standard in 2017, Nestlé Waters has already certified eight of its factories around the world, including in Pakistan, Canada and the United States.
“Water is one of the most critical sustainability challenges facing society and our business. At Nestlé, we care for water. We are 100% committed to safeguarding water resources for future generations,” said Nestlé Waters CEO, Maurizio Patarnello. “By pledging to certify all our Nestlé Waters sites against this publicly recognized, credible water stewardship standard, we demonstrate how we positively contribute to water resources where we operate for the shared benefit of all.”
This strengthened commitment demonstrates how Nestlé cares for water across four key areas: in factories, in watersheds, across its agricultural supply chains and in communities where it operates to provide access to clean water and sanitation.
The AWS certification process enables broader, improved collaboration among local stakeholders. This leads to a stronger understanding of local water challenges and more meaningful collective actions to address them – all vital to sustainable water resources management.
“Responsible water stewardship is an issue that concerns us all – businesses, governments, individuals and communities. Meaningful and inclusive collaboration is the only way we can positively contribute to the future of water,” said Adrian Sym, AWS CEO. “We hope other major businesses will follow in these footsteps” he concluded.
AWS in the United States
Earlier this year, Nestlé Waters completed the certification of all five of its factories in California, a priority outlined by the company late last year. California was selected as the first location for AWS certification in the U.S. because of the shared water challenges in the state. In addition, the company’s factory in Cabazon, California was the first facility in North America to achieve an AWS Gold certification. Cabazon’s AWS Gold certification is reflective of the facility’s meeting of advanced-level criteria, which includes a consensus of stakeholders affirming the positive contributions that the Cabazon factory has made on water balance and the quality of the catchment.
“Water is a shared resource and a shared responsibility, and caring for it requires close collaboration with other water users,” said Valeria Orozco, Director of Sustainability at Nestlé Waters North America. “AWS provides us with a common language to engage with stakeholders on these shared issues, and enables a holistic approach to water stewardship. This is critical to managing our water use for long-term sustainability, as well as seeking social and economic benefits for the local community.”
Urging other businesses to follow suit
Nestlé Waters is encouraging other companies to adopt the AWS Standard across their sites and factories around the world.
“We need a continuous dialogue between local water users and a mutual understanding of the challenges facing water resources to be able to build collective actions to proactively and sustainably manage water resources,” said Nestlé Waters’ Corporate Water Resources Manager, Cédric Egger. “We are determined to act as a catalyst to develop these action plans together with other local water users wherever it matters,” he said.
For 25 years, Nestlé Waters has been engaged in long-term collaborative solutions, at both factory and watershed levels, to preserve the quantity and/or quality of local water resources. Programmes like Agrivair, initiated in 1992 in Vittel (France), or Eco-Broye in Henniez (Switzerland) are regularly highlighted as some of the company’s lighthouse projects in water stewardship.
