Nestlé Waters has today 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.
- Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) certification is the first standard to globally promote best practice in water stewardship that benefits communities and preserves local watersheds.
- Nestlé Waters is extending its commitment to AWS certification because the process enables broader, improved collaboration among local stakeholders.
- Nestlé Waters is encouraging other businesses to adopt the AWS Standard, as meaningful and inclusive collaboration between all local water users is essential for the sustainable management of water.
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 to 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.
Arlin Rickard, Chief Executive of The Rivers Trust said, “We strongly welcome this commitment from Nestlé Waters to certify all its sites by 2025 in accordance with the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS). Sustainable management of our precious water resources is vital to both people and wildlife and The Rivers Trust looks forward to working with Nestlé Waters to help them meet this challenging objective in the UK.”
Encouraging 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.
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Nestlé UK Press Office on 020 8667 6005 or email [email protected]
NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Nestlé
Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company. It is present in 189 countries around the world, and its 323,000 employees are committed to Nestlé’s purpose of enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future. Nestlé offers a wide portfolio of products and services for people and their pets throughout their lives. Its more than 2000 brands range from global icons to local favourites. Company performance is driven by its Nutrition, Health and Wellness strategy. Nestlé is based in the Swiss town of Vevey where it was founded more than 150 years ago.
About Nestlé Waters
“The Healthy Hydration Company”, created in 1992, is the water division of the Nestlé Group and the number one bottled water company worldwide. It operates in 34 production countries with 92 production facilities and more than 33,700 employees. Nestlé Waters offers a large portfolio of 49 unique brands (from natural mineral waters to purified drinking waters) including Nestlé Pure Life, its No 1 bottled water brand, Perrier and S.Pellegrino, its international sparkling water brands.
About the Alliance for Water Stewardship
AWS is a global membership collaboration comprised of businesses, NGOs, public sector offices and sustainability stakeholders. They are the custodians of the International Water Stewardship Standard (‘AWS Standard’), a globally-applicable framework for major water users to understand their water use and impacts, and to work collaboratively and transparently for sustainable water management within a catchment context. Membership of AWS connects and motivates organizations united behind the AWS mission: the responsible use of freshwater that is socially and economically beneficial and environmentally sustainable.
The public sector and prominent environmental conservation groups such as World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and The Nature Conservancy contributed to the development of the AWS standard.