As the world’s bottled water leader, Nestlé Waters has made sustainable water use a top priority. Nestlé Waters preserves the quality and the purity of the water that it bottles without compromising the balance of local ecosystems.  This is the company’s creed in all its day-to-day operations around the world. Using this water in a responsible manner requires rigorous practices and processes that are now fully integrated all along the production line.

Raising awareness all around

As a responsible corporate citizen, Nestlé Waters strives day in and day out to raise awareness among a broad audience about the need to preserve water resources sustainably. Young people – the future guardians of the world’s environment and natural resources – are a particular focus of these efforts.
Launched in the United States in 1984, Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) is an educational and scientific programme highlighting best water practices. Project WET provides tools for teachers to raise awareness among children and teenagers of water’s vital importance and to ensure its protection in the community. This programme is sponsored by Nestlé Waters, who participates actively in its international development. Via its subsidiaries and the engagement of its employees, Nestlé Waters enabled the launch of WET in 3 new markets in 2005: Vietnam, Lebanon and Hungary. Today, the programme reaches millions of school children in approximately 25 countries around the world.

Withdrawing only what is strictly necessary

Despite its leadership of the bottled water sector, Nestlé Waters remains a very small consumer of fresh water.
Total volumes withdrawn around the world represent no more than 0.0009% of all water consumed by man. This figure is significantly lower than quantities used by industrial sectors and not even remotely close to those required for agricultural irrigation, which count for more than 70% of quantities used.
As water is an essential resource, Nestlé Waters seeks constantly to optimise its use. Therefore, the quantities of water withdrawn are strictly aligned with bottling unit needs. In parallel, the company works continuously to reduce its consumption of water for industrial purposes and steadily improves production systems to reduce and recycle the water used in bottling operations. The process is bearing fruit: the amount of water needed to produce 1 litre of bottled water continues to fall each year by approximately 5%.