Water continues to be a critical input to all IFF’s business operations, including cooling, steam generation, feedstock processing and cleaning. We also rely on water indirectly for all agricultural-related processes throughout our supply chain. We generate wastewater as an output of our manufacturing processes, and this water is treated before disposal.
In 2021, we completed more than 15 projects focused on reducing water withdrawal, with an expected savings of more than 120,000 cubic meters per year, contributing to a 5.5% year-over-year absolute water reduction for legacy IFF.
Learn about our Do More Good Plan goals here.
Our Tilburg plant in the Netherlands implemented a water recycling project in 2019 that resulted in the recycling of more than 84,000 cubic meters of water in its first full year of operation in 2020. This initiative was a model of successful collaboration between multiple private entities to utilize recycled water, reduce strain on the municipal supply and save money. We will leverage the lessons from this collaboration to identify new projects at other sites in support of our goal.
As part of the Do More Good Plan, IFF has two Internal water stewardship metrics focused on increasing efficiency efforts and watershed management. First, we aim to increase water use efficiency across the portfolio, which includes process improvements and use of recycled water for nonproduct operations. Second, we will focus on driving collective action for water stewardship in the communities where we source and operate.
As the risks of water scarcity and overconsumption increase around the world, particularly in locations with high baseline water stress, we strive to reduce our water use and consumption through increased efficiency and other water management strategies.
We analyze risk on an annual basis to identify areas of our operations with potentially high baseline water stress as classified by the WRI Aqueduct tool and other tools. Results from the initial screening indicate that 2.3% of our total water withdrawal in 2021 came from regions with high or extremely high baseline water stress. We use these results to further focus our water stewardship efforts.
Read more about how we are contributing to sustainable development in our 2022 ESG+ Report