Optimizing Manufacturing

Industrial footprint

As a leader in the beverage industry, we feel that we have a special responsibility to reduce our industrial footprint. Exploring new technologies particularly concerning energy efficiency also results in improved industrial competitiveness.

Third party certification of our environmental performances We use the Nestlé Environmental Management System (NEMS) to track the key environmental performance indicators over time for our nearly 100 bottling facilities worldwide. In addition to that, most of our factories have already implemented ISO 14001, the internationally recognized environmental management system standard, whereby performance is independently audited. We aim to have 100% of our manufacturing plants certified by 2010.

Results of our continuous efforts at our production facilities: Between 2004 and 2009 Waters has reduced its energy consumption by 22% in the production facilities.

These performances are due to careful daily management and also to the innovative initiatives we have taken at our plants. Click on the images below to learn more about these initiatives.

In the USA, a pioneer in “green building”

One example of the continuous improvement of our manufacturing facilities in the US includes measures to reduce energy use and emissions throughout the LEED Certification program. In 2003, NWNA was the first beverage manufacturer to build plants in America using LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, certified by a third-party (U.S. Green Building Council).
This construction standard helps increase energy and water efficiency and reduces the environmental impact that our facilities have.

Some examples of the LEED construction standards include:
Recycled building materials
Non-toxic building materials and maintenance
Native landscaping reducing the need for irrigation
Minimal exterior lighting
Indoor environmental quality through layout and controls that monitor temperature, humidity, lighting and air quality

Nestlé Waters has five LEED certified plants located in Tennessee, California, Texas, Florida and Michigan, and four more plants are in the process of being certified.

Compared to non-LEED plant performance from 2003-2006, our 5 LEED-certified Nestlé Waters plants together have reduced:
Energy use by 1.5 million kWH
Emissions by 1 million kilo of CO2

In the future, every new NWNA green field site will be designed to achieve LEED certification – that will include several sites over the next five years.

Here’s a look at the “green features” you’ll find inside a Nestlé Waters North America bottling facility that has earned LEED Certification.

In Egypt, reducing energy consumption by recycling water!

Baraka, Egypt’s leading brand of bottled water, comes from a site northeast of Cairo where the local authorities were concerned about optimising industrial water consumption.

To support this initiative, Nestlé Waters analysed its plant’s waste water flows. It found that waste water primarily resulted from chilled water used to cool machines manufacturing PET bottles, and from hot water used to sterilise pipes.

Investments were made to combine these two flows into closed loop circuits that incorporated a regenerative heat exchanger. Significant amounts of water and energy are saved this way!

The Nestlé Environmental Management System (NEMS) contributed to the success of this cross-process combination of water and energy management.