Committed to using water efficiently
At Givaudan, water is essential to our production activities and to our entire value chain.
Responsible use of water is vital to our leadership and we believe that our business model must be fully aligned with, and contribute to, sustainable water management in the key water basins where we source and operate, particularly in high water-risk basins.
We are working hard to champion water stewardship, working hard to protect water-dependent ecosystems and encouraging the sustainable use of water resources – and we expect our suppliers to do the same.
Our Water Policy emphasises our long-standing commitment to water stewardship and outlines how we are focusing on where and what matters most in operations, the supply chain and communities.
We act as a role model in water stewardship, working to protect water-dependent ecosystems and encouraging the sustainable use of resources
Target: Water efficiency
By 2030,
improve water efficiency by 25%
water withdrawal rate reduction
on sites facing water stress
(baseline 2020)
STATUS 2024
– 27%
Actions and measures
- Assessing opportunities and implementing projects to reduce our water withdrawal
- Applying water circularity principles in and around our production sites
- Implementing new technologies to reuse and recycle water in our operations
Target: Water efficiency
We will continuously improve
water efficiency on all other sites
by a water withdrawal
rate reduction
STATUS 2024
– 9%
Actions and measures
- Carrying out water risk assessments
- Driving continuous improvement using the 3R approach: ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’
Target: Wastewater
By 2030,
100% of our wastewater discharge
will meet or exceed regulatory
and industry standards
STATUS 2024
84%
Actions and measures
- Implementing our wastewater standard
- Tracking site water quantity and quality
On target
Our water targets support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and we have endorsed the CEO Water Mandate¹, a UN Global Compact initiative which brings together a critical mass of business leaders to address global water challenges.
Some recent milestones include:
- Improving water efficiency on sites facing water stress; reducing by 27% the water withdrawal rate compared to our 2020 baseline, achieving our 2025 target of 25%
- Improving water efficiency on all other sites; reducing by a 9% the water withdrawal rate compared to our 2020 baseline
- Being recognised once again for leadership in water security by CDP, which awarded us the highest ‘A’ score in 2023.
Progress on water efficiency 2022-2024
Water efficiency1 (in m3 withdrawn per tonne of production)
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
Total water efficiency | 7.20 | 7.10 | 6.73 |
Sites facing water stress | 4.82 | 5.60 | 5.02 |
1. Includes third party water (municipal supplies/purchased water) and groundwater.
Access our non-financial figures tool
For more on our latest progress, read our 2024 Integrated Report on economic and ESG performance.
