Danone moving ahead to ditch virgin plastic use, create water fund

02 / 04 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

Danone proceeded with its march of supporting the Sustainable Development Goals by launching “WeActForWater” under which Danone’s iconic water brands, including evian, Volvic, AQUA and Bonafont, will seek ambitious objectives on responsible packaging, climate neutrality, watershed preservation and access to safe drinking water.

Under “WeActForWater”, the company will take drastic measures with regard to getting rid of single-use plastic and depending on recycled plastic. Moreover, the company will launch Water Access Acceleration Fund that will help up to 50 million people access safe drinking water.

“WeActForWater” has five main objectives, topped by halving the amount of virgin plastic used by the water brands, reaching 50% recycled PET (rPET) use worldwide and 100% across Europe in 2025.

Danone’s water brands are accelerating its packaging transformation beyond plastic and single-use materials by o developing more reuse and refill solutions – almost half of Danone’s water brands’ volumes are already sold in reusable formats (mainly in Indonesia and Mexico) and the aim is to accelerate the expansion of this to Western countries.

Serving this end, the company seeks offering alternative packaging materials and investing in new “enhanced” recycling technologies like Loop.

Danone also works on building highly efficient bottle collection systems in all countries where it operates, collaborating with government, industries and consumers to ensure no bottle is used only once.

By 2025, the company aims at halving the amount of virgin PET used, reaching 50% recycled PET (rPET) use worldwide and 100% rPET across Europe (with evian’s bottles at 100% rPET worldwide) and achieving 100% recyclability (from 88% today) .

“WeActForWater” also aims to accelerate the move of the company’s water brands towards carbon neutrality in Europe by 2025, with evian and Volvic becoming carbon neutral this year, by reducing emissions throughout product life cycles and investing in carbon-positive projects that protect or restore natural ecosystems .

“WeActForWater” will also create a fund to help 50 million people have access to safe drinking water for communities in need in Asia, Africa and Latin America by 2030.

The fund aims to raise €50 million, with Danone providing catalytic capital of €10million.

“WeActForWater” will also enhance watershed and wetlands preservation around the world and seek to get its water brands to achieve B Corp certification worldwide by 2022.

Danone will continue investing in locally-developed, nature-based solutions, working with other users (e.g. farmers, communities, local authorities and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands since 1998) to lead water preservation for future generations. This work also fosters biodiversity enhancement, livelihoods improvement, carbon capture and more sustainable water resource management.

Full water stewardship programs will cover 25 watersheds by 2025 and 46 watersheds by 2030.

The collective of Danone’s water brands will seek B Corp Certification4 worldwide by 2022, joining the global movement to build a more sustainable and inclusive economy.