Bangkok, 30 November 2018 – Nestlé Pure Life has become the first company in Thailand to receive the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) certification, the standard that recognizes good water resource stewardship practices, for the company’s factory in Ayutthaya. This achievement reflects Nestlé Pure Life’s commitment to sustainable water management and environmental conservation, in line with Nestlé’s purpose of enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future for the world.
“At Nestle Pure Life, we recognize the importance of sustainable water resources for today and for the future. Water is a scarce resource with less than 1 percent of the world’s supply usable for consumption. Nestlé Pure Life, as the no.1 drinking bottled water in the world, cares for water conservation and has been committed to responsibly and sustainably managing water resources for future generations by following water stewardship practice, starting with where we operate. As part of this commitment, we strive to achieve the AWS standard in all our Nestle Waters factories around the world by 2025. Our Ayutthaya factory has continuously made water resource stewardship the topmost priority and we are pleased that the sustainable practices have enabled us to become certified by the international AWS standard,” says Luca Chioda, Business Executive Officer – Waters, Nestlé (Thai) Ltd.
The AWS Standard is the only recognized international standard for water stewardship. It requires that water-using operations understand shared challenges within the catchment where they operate as well as the water risks and opportunities facing the site itself. The AWS Standard recognizes and encourages best practices by water-using sites, continuous improvement and collaboration between sites and their stakeholders on catchment challenges. AWS seeks to achieve four water outcomes at a site and catchment level; sustainable water balance, good water quality, good water governance and healthy important water-related areas
Michael Spencer, Chair of the Global for AWS adds: “AWS is leading a global movement for responsible use of freshwater in a way that is socially and economically beneficial and environmentally sustainable. Over recent years, we have been joined in that movement by major companies, non-government organisations (NGOs) and governments. Nestlé has been at the forefront of that movement so we are delighted that Nestlé Pure Life has shown such strong commitment to sustainable water stewardship. The achievement of Ayutthaya factory as the first site in Thailand certified to the AWS standard will set a new benchmark for others to focus not only on quality of the product but also on the sustainability of water resources, ecosystems and communities around their operations.”
The key objectives of Nestle Pure Life’s efforts in encouraging environmental sustainability and water resource conservation include understanding the local communities around their factories expectations towards water usage and consumption, constant monitoring of water quality to safeguard water resources where they operate, as well as implementing the long-term sustainability project of Youth Water Guardian in partnership with WWF-Thailand.
Yaowalak Thiarachow, Country Director, WWF Thailand says, “Nestlé Pure Life and WWF Thailand have continuously worked together on many water and environment conservation activities, such as the Youth Water Guardian project which provides and facilitates the education of water resources conservation to secondary students and the general public along Kanomchin Canal in Ayutthaya province. We share the same goal with Nestlé Pure Life of conserving water for future generations and have therefore expanded the extent of our collaboration on the AWS certification. We are pleased that our collaboration has helped lead Nestle Pure Life to become the first and, thus far, only company in Thailand to be certified in meeting internationally recognized AWS standards.”
“Nestlé Pure Life will continue to improve their sustainable water management and stewardship practices in the catchment area around our factories. In addition to saving water in our operations, we believe meaningful, transparent collaboration between local stakeholders around our factories is the most effective way to responsibly and sustainably manage the water resource that we all share,” Chioda concludes.