Fonterra, in partnership with Ecolab’s water management division saved 190 million litres of water in their manufacturing process across Australia and New Zealand - equivalent to the annual drinking needs of over half a million people. This is over and above many impactful sustainability and water savings initiatives implemented by Fonterra.

Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services that help protect people, planet and business health.

Paul Rawding, Ecolab Senior Vice President and Market Head in Australia, and New Zealand commented, “Helping our customers operate more sustainably is a crucial part of our purpose at Ecolab. Water has a wide variety of uses in a manufacturing facility, including cleaning, sanitation, and food processing purposes. It takes a lot of energy to pump, treat, and heat water so saving water or using water more efficiently helps our planet, reduces Fonterra’s carbon footprint, and preserves this precious resource.”

Lee Stewart, Fonterra Head of Corporate Sustainability says, “At Fonterra we care about the environment and the communities in which we operate and we’re always looking for ways to improve - one area that’s always a focus for us is water. As well as the good work farmers are putting in on-farm, we’re investing across our 28 factories across New Zealand. Our factories depend on water, and we want to ensure our water use is as efficient as possible.”

He continues, “This includes initiatives to reduce overall water use in our manufacturing facilities, as well as continuing to look at the most responsible ways to take care of any excess water from our manufacturing processes.

Each manufacturing site has different requirements in relation to water treatment and meeting its own regional limits and environmental standards, that we take very seriously.

We know by working in partnership with others and exploring a wide range of solutions we will make more significant gains, more quickly.”