Nestlé is investing in innovative technology to help reduce the amount of water it uses in California at the five water bottling plants and four facilities where food or petcare products are manufactured, the company said today.
“Technology we have already deployed successfully elsewhere in the world to help address the challenges of water scarcity will improve our water use efficiency, relieving pressure on California’s water resources,” says Nestlé’s head of operations José Lopez.
Last year in Mexico, Nestlé opened its first ‘zero water’ plant, which extracts all the water it needs from milk used to manufacture dairy products.
Work is underway to transform the Nestlé USA milk factory in the city of Modesto (pictured) into a ‘zero water’ factory, meaning the plant will not use any local freshwater resources for its operations.
The project should save nearly 63 million gallons (238,000 cubic metres) of water each year, equivalent to 71 per cent of absolute withdrawals in 2014.
Around $7 million has been invested in the project which is due to be completed by the end of 2016.
Globally, Nestlé has already cut its total water withdrawal in absolute terms by almost one-third over the past 10 years, and has publicly committed to do more. It aims to reduce its withdrawal per tonne of product by 40 per cent by 2015, compared to 2005, the company reported on its website.
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