Responsible Water Stewardship

Utilising Water Sustainably

Water stewardship remains a crucial element of our environmental strategy and we are working with our regional teams to implement processes and initiatives that reduce our water intake and improve our water withdrawal and discharge tracking.

Our water management programmes include incorporating closed-loop and water quenching systems to replace once-through cooling systems, reducing sanitary water consumption and identifying and repairing water leaks. As a result, we have been able to successfully reduce our water withdrawal intensity over the last three years. In 2021, we reduced our water withdrawal by ~22% compared with 2020, from 77.8 cubic meters/US$M Net Sales in 2020 to 61.0 cubic meters/US$M Net Sales in 2021. As a result, we have already met our 2025 target to reduce our water withdrawal for manufacturing / warehouse operations by at least 15%, and our upcoming sustainability executional roadmap will set out our next ambitious target.

Baja California, Mexico

Our facility in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico is on track to complete two water usage reduction projects by the end of 2022 in an effort to mitigate water resource pressures now and in the future.

Condensed water from the building’s air conditioning system that produces residual oil is being separated and disposed of to make the water cleaner. We are in the process of creating an irrigation system so the water can be used for gardening purposes.

Another initiative – waterless toilets– will reduce the Mexicali facility’s total black water usage by 2%, or 180 cubic meters. These toilets use a “Drain and Seal Technology with a Double Sphere” that captures all odours and is also equipped with a preventative and maintenance function that guarantees the hygienic upkeep of toilets. The team began the project in March 2022 and expects to have the new urinals installed by December.

Haifa, Israel

We installed a new water treatment system in 2020 that improved the water recovery ratio from 60% to 75% and brought annual water savings of 130,000 litres.

Mölndal, Sweden

Wellspect creates reliable and user-friendly products for continence care, with as little environmental impact as possible.

In 2021, the Company fully implemented a new coating process at its manufacturing location in Mölndal, Sweden to reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint while complying with strict quality, patient safety and compliance regulations.

The process contains a 100% bio-based renewable chemical and is contributing to a substantial reduction in water consumption: each Wellspect product sold now requires 15% less water, and we have set an annual target to reduce the water consumption per product sold by 17% by 2025, using 2020 as the baseline.

We are also studying how best to implement the new coating concept at our manufacturing location in Kazan, Turkey by 2025. Installing the coating process there will help us further reduce our environmental footprint through decreased volumes of hazardous waste and the elimination of halogenated emissions being released into the air.