Report: Sustainable Water Management Workshop - Exchange of best practices12th November 2014 – Cefic – Brussels (BE)

The workshop on exchange of industry best practices took place on 12th November, in Cefic premises.Attendees included corporate environmental/water coordinators, sustainability and environmental managers from the chemical sector or from other sectors (paper sector; refinery), water providers and several representatives from water stewardship approaches and tools.

The workshop was opened by William Garcia, Executive Director for Energy, HSE and Logistics, who underlined the crucial role of water in chemical business and the need to have sustainable and secure access to it. Ann Dierckx (Health, Safety and Environment Manager) introduced the Cefic flagship initiative and recalled the support it received from policymakers (EU Commission, European Parliament and UNEP). Maria Giovanna Zamburlini, Environmental Policy Counsellor reminded that one major milestone achieved in the project was a common understanding within the chemical sector on sustainable water management. A special welcome was given to Martin Hostalek, Chair of the Responsible Care Strategic Implementation Group, hoping for greater synergies between the Flagship and Responsible Care Programme.

Two panel sessions took place in the morning, moderated by Durk Krol from WSSTP. The first session was dedicated to various tools contributing to the companies’ strategies towards sustainable water management.

First panel

Public during morning session

David Lyon, Principal Irbaris LLP presented the Ceres Aqua Gauge tool as an Excel tool to frame and assess all of the options for managing water impacts & risk, compare performance relative to leading practice in each area and prioritise future actions. This tool is also used by investors to assess companies’ performance.

Joppe Cramwinckel, Director Water WBCSD: the WBCSD Water tool is an Excel tool to identify, assess and communicate risks related to water availability at global company level. This tool is supported by an on-line mapping system combining company sites’ location with country and/or watershed data.

Chris Havers, Senior Account Manager Carbon Disclosure Project: the Carbon Disclosure Project questionnaire is used by companies to disclose their water performance to their stakeholders and investors as well as for catalyzing effective actions on water stewardship.

André Kingham, Vice President External Communications, Shell, and advisor to EWP: the European Water Stewardship programme consists of a standard and management framework for continuous improvement that is fully aligned with the European Water Framework Directive.

In the second session, company experts described how their companies were implementing sustainable water management programmes, with specific goals in water stressed areas by 2020.

Second Panel

Andrea Stoegbauer, Environment and Permits/Water BASF: the goal set by BASF is to implement sustainable water management at production sites located in water stressed areas by 2020. To identify those sites, BASF used the tool developed by Pfister et al. (2009). According to this tool, around 60 BASF production sites are

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located in areas affected by severe water stress. The local situation at those sites is assessed by applying the standard of EWS (European Water Stewardship).

Bea Buyle, Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, P&G: P&G’s Operations water goal is to use 20 % less water/unit production by 2020, with specific focus on water stressed areas. A first screening of all sites is based on the WRI Aqueduct baseline water stress tool, combined with other indicators. Based on this screening, priority sites are identified and asked to provide input to the WWF Water Risk Filter to identify the top priority sites for an in-depth site water analysis, which can be done through the GEMI Local Water Tool.

Koen Vermeiren, Corporate HSE Reporting Manager, Solvay: the Solvay environmental plan 2012 – 2020 for water includes reduction by 10% of drinking water and groundwater and to implement a sustainable water management in 100 % of the sites under hydric stress. The WBCSD Global Water Tool and WRI Aqueduct are used as pre-screening tools. Sites identified as potential hotspots are requested to fill out an internal water risk evaluation form, taking into account the sites’ local situation.

Thomas Sénac (Environment – HSE Corporate, Sanofi): Sanofi has a target of 25% reduction for water consumption by 2020 compared to 2010 level. To address local water risk, Sanofi has worked with Water Stress Index and World Resource Institute. Based on the crossed results, Sanofi identified 22 facilities having a relevant water usage (representing over 4.8% of the total water withdrawal within their specific business). For these 22 sites a water reduction plan will be established, with targets related to site specific situation.

In the afternoon a ‘Brain-storming’ session took place on practical experiences with regard to the assessment, mitigation and disclosure of water-related risks. Among general conclusions, water risk assessment was considered a bottom-up approach, where exposure through the supply chain should be included as well as consideration on both water quality and quantity aspects. Concerning water-related risk mitigation, several points were mentioned, such as: local assessments needs and sound economic information should be the basis for mitigation strategies; an integrated approach between water and energy should be adopted; products design and innovative products can also have great impact on water savings. A final recommendation was to establish a dialogue with stakeholders, to build a good relationship upfront in order to establish trust and to integrate sustainable water management into Responsible Care.

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Afternoon Brainstorming

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