Water use

The Home Care and Beauty and Personal Care product categories in which we operate consume more than 90% of the water used at home, from washing dishes to washing hair, skin and clothes. As a result, people experiencing water scarcity are making trade-offs about how they will use their ration 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 and help contribute 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. If the water system in which we operate - whether we’re growing tea, manufacturing our products or selling to consumers - depletes in quality or quantity, our business is at risk. Because of this, in areas where there are higher water risks, or we own agricultural sites, we’re building our water efficiency efforts through engaging with local communities and taking collective action with others to contribute to better water security for all.

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 Qinyuan drinking water purification business.

Supply chain

• Support agricultural suppliers on better irrigation techniques and equipment, to improve crop yields 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 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 2017, our water impact per consumer use reduced by around 2%^† compared to 2010.* We recognise that we are well behind the target. The main cause for the difference between our 2016 and 2017 result, is that our portfolio is now made up of more products that have a higher than average water footprint. Because of this, we have increased our focus on product innovations that use less water, whilst also encouraging consumer behaviour change.

We have made significant reductions in the water used in manufacturing, where our factories have abstracted 19.8 million^† fewer cubic metres of water in 2017 than in 2008. This equates to a reduction of 39%^† per tonne of production. We are also working with our agricultural suppliers; in 2018 we are launching our renewed Sustainable Agriculture Code, which as clear guidance on all aspects of Climate Smart Agriculture, including water management. By the end of 2017, we had jointly developed over 4,000 water management plans with our agricultural suppliers.

To move to a circular economy approach we will need to fundamentally rethink the way we design our products and packaging. This means carefully considering the systems in which our products flow. Through our advocacy work we will promote 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.

^†Independently assured by PwC