Nestlé Waters announced today that it would strengthen its collaboration with the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) to certify 20 factories by 2020.
The company has already certified four Nestlé Waters bottling facilities: one in Sheikhupura, Pakistan, and three in California (Ontario, Sacramento and Livermore). It plans to certify additional sites in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the United States as part of its 2020 objective.
The announcement represents an important step towards Nestlé Waters’ commitment to continuous improvement in their water stewardship practices, helping to address shared water challenges and ensuring the sustainability of water resources.
Adrian Sym, AWS CEO says: “Nestlé Waters’ strategic commitment to implementing the AWS Standard sets an example, demonstrating the importance of water stewardship and the business benefits it can deliver. Through our global membership, we will be calling on and supporting other major businesses to follow Nestlé Waters’ lead in making meaningful and independently verifiable contributions to our shared water challenges through implementation of the AWS Standard. ”
Maurizio Patarnello, Nestlé Waters CEO: “Collaborating with AWS is a new step on our water stewardship journey which will allow us to further engage with local communities to secure the sustainability of the local water resources where we operate. By broadly implementing this Standard, we will pave the way and show that meaningful collaboration is possible for the future of water.’’
Launched in 2014 by industry leaders, public sector agencies, academic institutes, and prominent environmental conservation groups such as The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund, AWS is the first global Water Stewardship Standard for measuring responsible water stewardship across social, environmental and economic criteria.
The rigorous process to become AWS certified further illustrates Nestlé Waters’ continued commitment toward water stewardship. Certified sites’ progress against the 30 Core AWS criteria is verified by credible, independent, third party certification bodies.
Nestlé Waters has been engaged in long-term collaborative solutions, at both factory and watershed levels, for 25 years to preserve the quantity and quality of local water resources. Programs like Agrivair initiated in 1992 in Vittel (France) or Eco-Broye in Henniez (Switzerland) are regularly highlighted as inspiring models for effective collaborative solutions in this area.
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 95 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, and 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.
Press contacts:
Nestle Waters:
Valérie Berrebi, [email protected]
AWS:
North America: Matt Howard, Tel: +1.414.988.8749, email: [email protected]
Global: Scott McCready, Tel: +44 7790 592009, email: [email protected]