Page 36 - Food&Drink August 2022 magazine

SUSTAINABILITY
Bottling water stewardship
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is working with water technology firm Ecolab to advance water stewardship at two of its production facilities. Kim Berry writes.
SNAPSHOT
FIVE STEPS
TO WATER
STEWARDSHIP
Water Stewardship Asia Pacific says any organisation can use the water stewardship framework to improve water management. There are five steps to keep efforts manageable and allow impacts to be linked to actions.
1. Understand your water use, risks,
impacts, and opportunities at a
site and local catchment-level.
2. Develop and commit to a water
stewardship plan, prioritising targets, with actions and responsibilities for improved water management and outcomes.
3. Implement your plan and improve your water impacts.
4. Evaluate your actions and revise your plan for continuous improvement.
5. Communicate your water actions responsibly and transparently.
Visit waterstewardship.org.au for
more information.
WITH the recent – and frequent – flooding experienced in parts of Australia, the impacts of two consecutive La Nina phases, and the east coast having four intense weather systems since February, talking about water scarcity and preservation can be challenging.
But water stewardship – the sustainable management of the water catchment in collaboration with stakeholders – is a long game.
Chair of Water Stewardship Asia Pacific and CEO of sustainability consulting firm Cress Consulting Julia Seddon says, “Water stewardship is not water conservation, it isn’t water efficiency, and it isn’t traditional water management or even water quality. It is all these things and more.”
For Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), water is a critical part of its business.
CCEP vice president of Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Lisa Rippon Lee says, “Water is the main ingredient in our products, essential to our manufacturing
processes and critical to ensuring a sustainable supply of the agricultural ingredients we depend upon.
“Our stewardship of this precious resource is not only
a key pillar of our sustainability strategy, it is something
our manufacturing teams proactively implement
each day.”
Rippon Lee explains that CCEP adopted a value chain approach to water stewardship, focusing on water efficiency within our own operations.
The company recently partnered with water technology company Ecolab, with the goal of optimising water efficiency at CCEP’s
37.8%
LESS WATER WILL BE USED ANNUALLY AT THE RICHLANDS SITE.
Water efficiency measures at CCEP’s Richlands facility in Queensland will save 282 million litres of water a year.
largest production facility at Richlands, Queensland.
The $165 million Richlands site was opened in October 2018. It is 30,000 square metres, has 10 production lines and produces 320 SKUs including carbonated soft drinks, post mix, water and flavoured water, Powerade, as well as dairy, alcohol and energy drinks.
The facility also has one of the largest rooftop solar systems in Queensland, with 3064 panels providing energy for its needs.
In turning the focus to water management, Ecolab and CCEP created a roadmap that will see Richlands save more than
282 million litres of water each year, reducing water usage at the site by 37.8 per cent.
“We will also save more than 258 million litres of wastewater, 1500 tonnes of greenhouse gases, and 9000 gigajoules of energy annually,” Rippon Lee says.
CCEP also turned its attention to its Northmead plant in Sydney, New South Wales, to continue driving improvements to the facility’s Water-Usage-Ratio.
“At Northmead, clean water from two of our beverage blenders is currently being collected, treated, and re-used.
“We’re also actively collecting rainwater at the site that we can use sustainably for washdown activities that are critical to food safety,” she says.
These two initiatives reduce Northmead’s annual water usage by two Olympic-sized swimming pools, 2.5 million litres,peryear. ✷
✷
36 | Food&Drink business | August 2022 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au