Nestle Waters' Dashan Factory in China Achieves Gold-level Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Certification

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PARIS, October 25, 2018 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

The 12th Nestle Waters factory to receive AWS certification

One year ago today, Nestle Waters committed to certifying 20 factories to the

international Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard by 2020.  Nestle

Waters is marking this milestone on its water stewardship journey by announcing

the gold-level certification of its Dashan factory in China.  The factory is

the latest at Nestle Waters to achieve AWS certification and will be officially

presented with its gold-level award at an AWS seminar in Beijing today.

     (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/774287/Nestle_Waters_Logo.jpg )

Yet the situation was not completely golden when Nestlé Waters first acquired

the factory nearly ten years ago.  Located in a rural area of Yunnan Province,

the local aquifer is sensitive to seasonal variations in rainfall and any

excess use of water has immediate consequences for all local water users.  The

Nestle Waters team was quickly convinced of the need to take action to start

addressing the most pressing local water challenges in a meaningful way.  

Initial actions included improving online monitoring of the well, more in-depth

analysis of the dynamic water level and ensuring that factory water withdrawals

are consistently below maximum limits.  Water levels have stabilised as a

combined result of ongoing actions like these.

"We have had a strengthened well management plan in place for over seven years,

and we have reduced the factory's water use by at least 20% during the same

period," said Boyce Wu, who led the AWS certification process at the factory.

"We have also prioritised getting to know and speaking to the local community

that lives in the vicinity of the factory" he elaborated.  

This is not the end of the factory's journey towards sustainable management of

the local water resource.  Boyce and the team will apply the important lessons

they have learned from their AWS certification experience.  Primary among them

is progress on transparency and improvement in local community relations.  

Transparency in sharing watershed data and closer links with communities are

vital to water stewardship as they build mutual understanding of water

challenges as well as trust and resolve among stakeholders to work together to

address them.  

With this latest certification, Nestle Waters now has a total of 12 factories

certified to the AWS Standard.  The company has also extended its inaugural

commitment to include certification of all its factories by 2025 because AWS

certification encourages its teams to constantly challenge and improve the way

they manage water. Nestle Waters' commitment to water stewardship supports

business's contribution to SDG 6 on water and the company's sustainable

management of water.  

About Nestle Waters

Founded in 1992, Nestle Waters is the water division of the Nestle Group and

the No. 1 bottled water company worldwide (sales of CHF 8.0 billion in 2017).

Nestle Waters employs more than 33,000 people worldwide. With over 93

production facilities situated in 33 countries around the world, Nestlé Waters

has a unique portfolio of more than 50 brands including Nestlé Pure Life,

Perrier, S. Pellegrino, Poland Spring, Vittel, Buxton, Erikli.

For more information visit http://www.nestle-waters.com.

About the Alliance for Water Stewardship

The AWS is a global membership-based organisation that promotes and recognises

good water stewardship.  As part of the certification process, independent

auditors look at a number of factors within the groundwater basins where

facilities are located and interview a number of internal and external

community stakeholders.  Sites that achieve certification meet either core,

gold or platinum-level requirements.

SOURCE: Nestle Waters