Water sustainability is one of the most critical issues affecting humankind. With water supply, there are essentially two camps: the haves and the have nots. How do those of us who are fortunate enough to be in the haves avoid falling into the have nots?
For Tetra Pak, if there is no water, there are no trees… and there are no Tetra Pak cartons. Even with recycling, you need water.
Tetra Pak’s mantra is to find opportunities to reduce water consumption in our operations and across the entire lifecycle of a product. We prioritize buying material from sustainably-managed sources , such as forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which upholds certain water efficiency requirements with tree irrigation. We are very selective about who we partner with, choosing to align with environmentally-focused organizations like the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative and Bonsucro.
We also purchase our raw materials from paper mills that take sustainability to heart and have demonstrated that their practices have the lowest possible impact on the environment.
All Tetra Pak factories comply with ISO 14001 standards (the ISO standard for environmental excellence) and apply targets for waste, energy, and water consumption. In addition, our operations leverage World Class Manufacturing methodology for continuous improvement and environmental excellence.
We offer some of the most technically-advanced, water- and energy-efficient processing and packaging equipment to our customers. For example, a new filtration technology makes it possible to recover 90 percent of previously lost wastewater in dairy processing plants – with potential savings of up to 1.6 million gallons of water and 820,000 gallons of milk each year.
Water recovery units for homogenizers and filling machines reduce water consumption by 30% and 95% respectively. And a new technology for UHT milk production reduces water consumption by 60% compared to traditional UHT production. We can also support our customers with consulting services that provide environmental benchmarking and suggestions for enhancement.