By embedding water conservation practices in our day-to-day operations we have been able to meet and exceed our conservation goals.
Through the application of ReCon Water and the dedicated commitment of our associates, we were able to achieve our goal of improving water-use efficiency by 20 percent per unit of production ahead of the 2015 target, from a 2006 baseline.
This improvement, in 2013 alone, corresponded to an estimated water-flow savings of over 14 billion liters and cost savings of nearly $15 million.
Projects that drove significant savings ranged from monitoring and fixing leaks in our beverage plants to recycling and reusing water. As an example, our Treated Water Efficiency Tool, which allows beverage plants to optimize their water treatment systems, has saved an estimated $640,000 in costs and reduced water consumption by over 200,000 cubic meters per year in our U.S. beverage operations.
Reducing our water use within our operations is only one part of our approach to water stewardship. An equally important aspect is how we treat water once we have finished using it in our operations.
We also aim to reuse as much treated process water as possible through recovery and reuse systems that enable the return of safe and clean water to the communities where we operate.