Water Stewardship – Nestlé Waters

The importance of water stewardship

Ensuring our springs remain continuous sources of high quality water is critical to our business success. To do this, we must manage the resources sustainably and work in partnership with local community stakeholders to protect the surrounding lands and local watersheds.

Sustainable management and healthy watersheds

Target 1:

Enhance our water stewardship practices by partnering with local communities and stakeholders to support up to two watershed improvement projects per year (2011-2015)

We have a robust process in place to manage our spring sources sustainably. Starting with the careful selection of our spring sources, and including regular monitoring and adaptive management, our goal is to withdraw water from the source without harming this source or its surrounding environment.

We maintain 14,000 acres of land as open space in areas surrounding our spring sources and undertake watershed protection projects in many areas.

In working with local community organizations, we’ve made significant progress in restoring habitats, reintroducing plants and trees, and protecting streams, grasslands, and woodlands.

We will develop criteria to help identify local watersheds in need of care around the areas where we have source sites. We will engage local community partners and other stakeholders to work together on watershed improvement projects.

Case Study – Crystal Springs Preserve – Natural Florida as a Classroom

Crystal Springs, in rural Florida, is the primary spring source for our Zephyrhills^® brand spring water. With our support, Crystal Springs Preserve (CSP) also serves as a world-class environmental education center, offering field trips and unique learning activities to students of all ages on nearly 525 acres of wilderness and through eco-friendly learning facilities.

During 2010, CSP hosted more than 50,000 visitors, including 35,000 students, from all over North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Africa. CSP also sponsored the local Great American Cleanup event, during which volunteers cleared 3.5 tons of garbage from the local watershed.

Our water use

Target 2:

Optimize water use ratios by product type over 2009 levels

Using water wisely is also critical. Reducing our use where possible through efficiency and continuous improvement practices has made us one of the most efficient water users in the beverage industry. All of our plants are ISO 14001 certified, which validates our annual progress for water, energy, and waste reduction.

We are an obvious, albeit small, user of water. Of the total fresh water used in North America, we use just 0.003%. Spring waters are the most efficient packaged beverage when it comes to water use. Because our sources are selected for their high quality, there is minimal processing required or allowed. For purified water brands like Nestlé^® Pure Life^®, the reverse osmosis purification process requires more water.

Our Global Environmental Footprint assessment tool measures the total volume of fresh water used along the production chain. We have adopted new processes and upgraded our technology to achieve further reductions in our total water use.

Since 2005, we have achieved a 1.6% reduction in our water use ratio, while increasing our production volume by over 30%.

In 2009, we developed a plan to minimize wastewater generation, which reduced our wastewater through various means, such as recapturing and using the water for our cooling towers.

Our goal moving forward is to optimize the water use for each type of bottled water we produce, both spring and purified. We will conduct water footprint analysis to track and report water use intensity for our spring and purified water products. Given the growth potential of the Nestlé Pure Life brand, we anticipate that our total water usage will gradually rise over time.

Letter From Our CEO

Dear Stakeholders,

Beginning in 1976, when our company first introduced Americans to bottled water through the Perrier^® brand, we have grown to be the largest bottled water company in the U.S. and Canada, with 15 unique brands, 28 facilities, and 7,500 employees. We built our company on the premise that success lies in being a responsible leader by creating value for consumers, communities, employees, and other key stakeholders.

Creating Shared Value

At Nestlé, we describe this as Creating Shared Value – a fundamental part of our way of doing business. I believe this report reflects how we go beyond incremental steps and think bigger about ways we can be a strong advocate for water, minimize our environmental impact, and make a positive impact on our communities.

Transparency and Collaboration

We continually seek ways to improve how we operate, as well as how we engage with – and learn from – our neighbors and stakeholders. Reporting on our sustainability and corporate citizenship is one avenue, which we will continue doing every two years. Equally important is collaboration with others to create 21st-century solutions to address the broader societal issues, especially improved recycling in North America.

The Road Ahead

I invite you to review this website to learn more about what the road ahead entails.

On behalf of everyone at Nestlé Waters North America, thank you for your interest in our company.

Sincerely,

Kim Jeffery
President and Chief Executive Officer
Nestlé Waters North America

Progress on 2008 Goals

About This Report

The Nestlé Waters North America 2010 Citizenship Report

Creating Shared Value

Nestlé Waters North America is part of the Nestlé Company. At Nestlé, Creating Shared Value is a fundamental part of our way of doing business that focuses on specific areas of the company's core business activities – namely water, nutrition, and rural development – where value can best be created both for society and stakeholders. For more information, please go to www.nestle.com/csv. At Nestlé Waters North America, we are aligned with the Creating Shared Value approach through our principles of "Water Advocacy, Sustainability Leadership, and Community Partnership."

The Nestlé Waters North America 2010 Corporate Citizenship Report

This is the second corporate citizenship report issued by Nestlé Waters North America. The first report was published after 2008 results. The 2010 report describes the company’s commitment to corporate citizenship and sustainability. The data and case studies contained in this report pertain to fiscal years 2008 through 2010 (January 1 through December 31). All references to currency are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted. The boundaries of this report cover the entire enterprise of Nestlé Waters North America and the Nestlé Waters Canada division of Nestlé Canada, Inc., including their respective sourcing operations and manufacturing, administrative, and distribution facilities in the United States and Canada.

The content in our 2010 report is organized around three overarching corporate citizenship and sustainability principles, 9 supporting goals, and 17 related performance targets, all of which are aimed at addressing our most material issues. The report also includes a progress update on the goals we established in 2008, most of which have been met or are on the road to being fulfilled.

We used the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3 Guidelines as a reference (www.globalreporting.org) for best practices in reporting, but did not adhere to the requirements of the GRI in developing this report.

Our next report will be published in 2013 covering the period through 2012.