Nestlé Spain will aim to eliminate waste sent to landfill sites and reduce water use by 64% as part of environmental goals to be reached by 2020.
The ambitious targets also include cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 35% at the company’s ten Spanish factories. These aims follow on from a €19 million environmental management campaign which took place between 2010 and 2016.
The investment enabled the company to reduce waste sent to landfill by 74% through a commitment to recycling, separation of waste at source and improved storage conditions. Last year, Nestlé Spain produced 880 tonnes of waste, down from 3,380 tonnes in 2010. Five of the ten plants are already zero-waste.
The company considers water resources management one of its environmental priorities over the coming years, aiming to reduce by 64% the use of water per tonne of finished product by 2020. Since 2010 a total of 59.4% has been reduced.
Specifically, at the beginning of the decade, there were 11.03 cubic metres of water used per tonne of finished product. This rate was down to 4.3 cubic metres last year. In total, the equivalent of 1,870 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of water has been saved.
Furthermore, since 2010, Nestlé Spain has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 15%. Currently, all of the energy bought by the company comes from renewable sources.
These positive figures and ambitious targets are partly down to a training programme carried out by the company. In the past year, around 1,800 Spanish workers took part in training activities related to environmental issues.
Earlier this month, Nestlé Waters invested $6 million in closing the recycling loop in its US business as a further sign of commitment to its environmental obligations.
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