Reusing water from the milk in this way removes the need to extract groundwater for operations. The amount of groundwater that the Cero Agua dairy saves each day amounts to roughly 15 percent of the total water used by the company in Mexico each year in its factories, operations and offices.
Such water savings are part of its efforts to promote “conservation, treatment, recycling and water efficiency in our operations and among farmers, suppliers and other partners in our supply chain,” says Marcelo Melchior, who heads Nestlé Mexico.
The Cero Agua project is just one of a number of water-saving initiatives the company has introduced at its factories around the world in recent years.
These have allowed the company to reduce total water withdrawal per ton of product by 37 percent globally over the past 10 years while increasing production.
Worldwide, Nestlé aims to further reduce its water withdrawal per ton of product to achieve an overall reduction of 40 percent by 2015 (see “Nestlé and Water Stewardship Quick Facts”).