Our manufacturing performance

Water use in manufacturing

As part of our Sustainable Living Plan, we have new targets to reduce water use in our manufacturing process:

• By 2020, water abstraction by our global factory network will be at or below 2008 levels, despite significantly higher volumes. This represents a 78% reduction per tonne production and a 65% absolute reduction (versus a 1995 baseline). We will focus in particular on factories in water scarce locations.
• All newly built factories will aim to abstract less than half the water of current ones.

During 2009 we used a tool developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to identify levels of water stress at each of our manufacturing sites. In water scarce areas we also carried out social impact studies to ensure that our water use does not cause a negative impact on the supply to local communities.

Building on this in 2010 we implemented Project Neutral, a site-by-site assessment to help our manufacturing operations meet our Sustainable Living Plan targets. Our targets commit us to maintaining our 2008 levels of greenhouse gas, water and waste impacts against a backdrop of significant volume growth in our business. This is a tough challenge. To build a detailed plan to achieve this, we reviewed the likely areas of volume growth from a geographic and product perspective. We also looked at the current environmental performance of all our sites. As a result we identified a number of ‘levers’ or areas of potential change which will deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption. Examples of levers include renewable energy sourcing, rainwater harvesting and energy saving in our processes. We asked all our manufacturing sites to assess themselves against these levers, which showed us where the opportunities for reductions lie. Projects have been identified by individual sites which, when implemented, will further reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption.

Water scarcity is also a key consideration when planning a new site or changing the production mix at an existing site, especially of water-intensive products in water-scarce areas.

Performance in 2010

Since 1995, we have reduced the quantity of water per tonne of production in our manufacturing sites by 66% (equivalent to a reduction of 68% in absolute terms). This water reduction has been achieved by minimising water use and maximising water recycling. For example, our factories collect reusable water which would otherwise be wasted, such as water evaporated from fruit and vegetables during the drying process.

We measure water consumption in all our factories. The data represents all water consumed and includes water used as an ingredient in products as well as uncontaminated non-contact cooling water and waste water.

In 2010 we reduced our water consumption by 4.6% per tonne of production compared with 2009, a reduction of 0.1% in absolute terms.

Water m³/tonne of production (1995-2010)

In 2010, we sold our Italian frozen foods business and with it a dedicated factory in Cisterna which was a major water user. However, its data is included in the relevant environmental and occupational safety performance indicators for our 2010 reporting.

This data forms part of the eight environmental and two occupational safety performance indicators which have been independently assured by Deloitte LLP.

Site-level initiatives

Our manufacturing sites worldwide have demonstrated eco-excellence in saving CO₂ emissions, water and waste. Here are some recent examples for water.

Water harvesting in India

Our Indian business harvests rainwater from roofs and surrounding areas at a quarter of its factories, collecting more water than is used in the manufacturing process. Excess water is collected and returned to groundwater systems or used for non-manufacturing processes in a controlled way, ensuring that it does not result in flooding. In addition, around two-thirds of our Indian sites reuse all their processing water, once appropriately treated, in manufacturing or for on-site irrigation.

Through a series of technology innovations Hindustan Unilever has reduced groundwater consumption by more than 50%. At our Khamgaon soap factory in the state of Maharashtra, a water catchment system channels rainwater into ponds. This helps renew groundwater reserves, which are running at critically low levels in the region.

Adjacent villages have also been helped to implement new models of watershed development, to prevent rainwater from washing away top soil, and assist with soil conservation.

Water re-use in the Americas

At our Comayagua home and personal care factory in Honduras, the process cooling water that was formerly discharged as effluent is now collected and treated with a carbon filter. The water is then reused, saving around 5% of total water use on the site.

Our new aerosol factory in Mexico has many green features and is expecting to save around 40% of water per tonne of production when compared to our existing deodorant manufacturing sites.

Our foods factory in Covington, Tennessee has reduced its water use for non-contact cooling to match the true cooling needs for specific equipment.

Consumption of potable & non-potable water

We work to protect the quality of the water in the countries where we operate and we collect data on the amount of potable (drinking quality) and non-potable (lower quality) water that we use. For some sites this information can be useful in helping them reduce the use of potable water. We ensure all our manufacturing sites apply the highest standards for water discharge. We do this by monitoring the chemical oxygen demand (COD) which is an industry standard for measuring the amount of organic pollutants in water and is a useful way to measure water quality. See Eco-efficiency in manufacturing. We set COD reduction targets every year as part of our eco-efficiency manufacturing programme.

Potable water – Load per tonne of production (2002-2010)

Non-potable water – Load per tonne of production (2002-2010)