Stewarding our most precious resource - Water

Helping to protect the quality of natural waters and stewarding water resources is deeply connected to regeneration. We do this under our flagship Caring for Water - Pakistan (C4W-Pakistan) initiative.

We rely on water throughout our agricultural supply chains and operations and recognize our role in helping to ensure access to sufficient clean water. This is why our C4W-Pakistan initiative is built on three pillars that Agriculture, Factories and Communities. We continue to reduce withdrawals in our factories, help farmers to introduce sustainable practices, and help enable access to safe water and sanitation in communities near our operations.

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Our Waters Business will advance the regeneration of the water cycle to help create a positive water impact everywhere it operates by 2025.

What is water cycle regeneration and positive water impact?

Regeneration of water cycle involves many different methods of helping nature capture more water throughout individual watersheds. It is based on implementing locally relevant nature-based solutions.
What is positive water impact?

A positive water impact means that we will make more water available within the watershed than we use annually.

Our Waters Business will advance the regeneration of the water cycle to help create a positive water impact everywhere it operates by 2025.

Even though our regeneration commitment is new, it builds on our existing water stewardship efforts under the umbrella of Caring for Water-Pakistan (C4W-Pakistan) initiative launched in 2017. It is a blueprint for gauging collective action and bringing different partners together to discuss and find solutions for the existing water challenges faced by the country. We have undertaken a number of activities under three overarching pillars of C4W-Paksitan initiative; Factories, Communities and Agriculture.

FACTORIES

Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Certification

The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard is an international standard for freshwater resources that guides organizations to manage water by taking site and catchment relevant initiatives through stakeholder inclusive processes.

In 2017, Nestlé Pakistan’s Sheikhupura Factory became the first site in Pakistan and the first Nestlé site worldwide to be awarded the AWS Certification. Our factories in Islamabad, Kabirwala, and Karachi were certified in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. We are the first market in the Nestlé world to have all our sites certified by the AWS standard.

In-House Efficiencies

Owing to our unwavering efforts to improve in-house efficiencies allowed us to save more than 56,000 m³ of water in 2023 across our manufacturing units by recycling and reusing water. Moreover, we only discharge wastewater resulting from our industrial processes after treating it in in compliance with the standards set by the environmental authorities.

WASH Pledge

We have undertaken the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Pledge, as part of which companies commit to implement access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene at the workplace at appropriate levels for employees in all premises under their control. All of our four factories and other sites meet the WASH Pledge requirements, covering more than 3,600 employees.

COMMUNITIES

Safe and Clean Drinking Water Facilities

We have established 7 Clean and Safe Drinking Water Facilities providing access to clean and safe water to more than 70,000 people every day. Nestlé has also taken the responsibility of maintaining these facilities through our third- party service provider with strict quality controls, checks and balances in place.

Water Education

Through our Water Education Program, we have reached out to 40,000 children and 550 teachers in schools in 2023.

AGRICULTURE

Drip Irrigation

Working together with the Agriculture Department, Government of Punjab, Nestlé Pakistan has encouraged local farmers to take up drip irrigation. Under this initiative, we covered 40% of the farmer’s cost of putting up the equipment for drip irrigation, with the remaining amount being covered by the Punjab government through a World Bank-funded program.

In addition, we are showcasing drip irrigation in collaboration with the Pakistan Agriculture and Research Council (PARC). We have also established another demonstration site in a similar partnership with the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore. These sites showcase best farm practices to academia, as well as public, private and development sector practitioners.

In 2023, drip irrigation was operational across 128 acres in Punjab and 183 acres in Sindh. This allowed us to save over 223,000 m³ water, according to our estimate.

Smart Soil Moisture Sensors

Nestlé Pakistan and the Centre for Water Informatics & Technology (WIT) at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) have developed low-cost smart soil moisture sensors. These sensors read the moisture level of the soil and send regular data updates to a cloud from where the farmer receives information about which areas they should irrigate and how much. In addition, as part of the initiative, a software has been developed which allows farmers and researchers to access soil moisture level remotely.

In 2023, smart soil sensors were operational on 548 acres, allowing water savings of over 310,000 m³ according to our estimate. Our water savings are in the process of being validated through a third-party study.