Increased Attention to Local Water Conditions
Continuous improvement in water management
David Bonilla, National Water Resources & Environment Manager, is responsible for regulatory affairs at the Herrera del Duque factory in Spain
Nestlé's global operations will continue to seek improvements in water consumption, reducing water usage,
and reducing even further our water “footprint.” While substantial progress has been made, we will not
be complacent and satisfied with the status quo.
Most of Nestlé's factories are not in water-stressed regions.
However, 49 of Nestlé’s 481 factories are in 13 countries which are amongst the 45 most waterstressed
countries in the world, as noted by the
World Water Council’s Water Poverty Index (see below).
As a result, an evaluation of the relative performance of factories in these 13 countries was performed,
revealing that additional water-use efficiency is possible. These factories receive special focus,
the objective being to assist local factory management to further understand the challenges, to prompt
local stress assessments that generate new water-saving projects, and assure that local management is
informed about and involved in community activities related to water.
To further improve capacity for water management amongst local management, Nestlé Waters is developing
its own internal water stress index that combines the national-level "Water Poverty Index" with
a local-level indicator of water stress issues at the actual Nestlé Waters factory location. Nestlé
Waters will assess a series of local parameters to better understand and monitor the specific risk
any potential water issue would pose on its operations and the local communities. The index allows
for a broader set of indicators to be evaluated when deciding on priorities and future strategy.
The WPI, developed by the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) Wallingford, and the World Water Council (WWC) grade 147 countries for their characteristics and performance in 5 dimensions
of potential water stress: resources, access, capacity, use, and environment. Each of these
component indices is made up of several sub-indices providing sufficient granularity to enable
identification of local causes and challenges of water stress.
Locations of Nestlé factories in the most water-stressed countries, located in lowest 30th percentile of the Water Poverty Index. [D]