Water use

Our activities impact the environment largely as a result of consumer use. The Home Care and Beauty & Personal Care product categories in which we operate account for more than 90% of the water used in people’s homes, from washing dishes to washing hair, skin and clothes. As a result of this, and the impact of water scarcity because of climate change, water is one of our most material issues.

People experiencing water scarcity are making trade-offs about how they will use their limited supply of water. In turn, this limits the growth of our products. We also know that when droughts strike, agricultural prices often increase, and an energy crisis often follows as water is a critical ingredient in energy production. This drives up prices, creating a triple hit on our business.

Water systems are hugely complex and interconnected. For example, what impacts suppliers can impact the availability of raw materials to our business and ultimately, impact our consumers. We have set out a global water strategy to both safeguard our ability to operate whilst contributing to SDG 6.

Water is essential for people to enjoy our products. With limited water, we struggle to wash our hands, our clothes, our bathrooms or make a refreshing cup of tea. This is reflected in our water footprint; over 99% of our water use occurs when consumers use our products, particularly when doing laundry, washing hair, showering or bathing.

So our Research and Development teams are focusing on developing products that provide the same performance with less water, poor quality water or no water at all. We’re also working with our suppliers to reduce the water used to grow our crops, and we’re reducing water use in our own factories across the world.

The actions of one user in a watershed can determine the water supply for everyone else. Because of this, we recognise the importance of engaging with local communities and taking collective action with others to contribute to better water security for all, and undertake this approach where appropriate.

We’re accelerating our product innovation to meet the needs of people in water-scarce regions, while continuing to reduce water use in agriculture and our own manufacturing operations. Our efforts are focused on areas where we can have the biggest positive impact.

Our internal Water Board is responsible for our water strategy and our water targets. Its focus is on driving water-smart innovations to achieve business growth, and it’s chaired by our Home Care Category President, Kees Kruythoff.

Brands & innovation

• Develop innovative products which help people adapt to a water-scarce world
• Build our Pureit and Truliva (formerly Qinyuan) drinking water purification businesses.

Supply chain

• Support agricultural suppliers on better irrigation techniques and equipment, to improve crop yields while using less water.
• Proactively map and manage water and climate risk in the supply chain.

Factories

• Continue to drive sustainable water use in our manufacturing operations.

Advocacy

• Work in partnership with government, like-minded businesses and civil society in key water-scarce countries to tackle wider systems challenges around access to water, sanitation and hygiene.

Halve the water associated with the consumer use of our products by 2020.*

In addition, in our own operations, the water abstraction by our global factory network will be at or below 2008 levels, despite significantly higher volumes, by 2020.

In 2018, our water impact per consumer use reduced by around 2% compared to 2010.*∞ We recognise that we are a long way short of halving our water impact and we will not achieve this very challenging target by the end of 2020. This is partly because our portfolio is now made up of more products that have a higher than average water footprint compared to 2010, and that our biggest water impact occurs when consumers shower, bathe and wash clothes with our products. Significant behaviour change is needed to reduce water consumption when our products are used in people’s homes. Furthermore, despite some progress, our efforts to launch more water-smart product innovations – products that use less water – have not, at this stage, significantly reduced our water impact per consumer use and encouraged consumer behaviour change.

Because of this, we want to broaden our water strategy by recognising the role of water in our consumers’ lives and its importance as a growth driver for our business. We are developing innovative products which deliver the benefits people need, but use less water. For example, our Rin and Sunlight smart-foam fast-rinse laundry detergents available in India and South Africa respectively, and our Love Beauty and Planet range, which uses fast-rinse technology in its conditioners, are helping people to use less water, as they require less water to work effectively.

We are also developing products which use no water at all, such as Domestos Flush Less, a toilet spray that disinfects and eliminates odours without the need to flush, and our Love Home and Planet and Day2, first dry wash sprays, which are made with only 0.02% of the water used in a normal UK laundry load. Furthermore, we’re continuing to develop products that improve water quality, through our Pureit and Truliva drinking water purification brands.

We have made significant reductions in the water used in manufacturing, where our factories have abstracted 22.5 million^† fewer cubic metres of water in 2018 than in 2008, achieving our target two years ahead of schedule. This equates to a reduction of 44%^† per tonne of production.

We are also working with our agricultural suppliers. Water management is an integral part of our Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC). Close to 100% of our vegetable suppliers, including tomato suppliers, now comply with our SAC. And almost all, when using irrigation, have water management plans in place and report on the water used.

Our suppliers are also adopting an additional set of farm practices in their uptake of the updated 2017 SAC, which has clear guidance on all aspects of Climate Smart Agriculture. These include ensuring that water infrastructure, like pipes and canals, are readily maintained, as well as encouraging suppliers to influence water management decisions of their farmers, to conserve water and improve the efficiency of their water use.

Investment in natural and man-made infrastructure, government regulations and action by the private sector are all essential to any lasting solutions. Through our advocacy work we are promoting policies and market-based solutions that enable more people to have access to water, sanitation and hygiene.

Water pricing, water metering, efficient household appliances and water-saving products are all necessary levers to create the systemic change urgently needed for sustainable water use. However, in some countries it will take time for governments to improve the quality and quantity of water supply. There is an immediate need for new products that use water much more effectively in the home and which work well in low quality water. Our challenge is to accelerate our innovation pipeline to meet people’s needs.

^* Our environmental targets are expressed against a baseline of 2010 and on a 'per consumer use' basis. This means a single use, portion or serving of a product. We are reporting against our five water-using sub-categories (Laundry, Hair Care, Oral Care, Skin Cleansing and Household Care) in seven water-scarce countries: China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey and the US.

^∞ The spreads business was sold in mid-2018 and is excluded from the performance measure (including the baseline) to ensure alignment with the existing business structure.

^† Independently assured by PwC