Plans are in place to decrease use of water 50 per cent by 2030 with strategies developed across several countries

Westfalia has said that it is advancing on its water strategy with plans in place to decrease use of the resource by 50 per cent by 2030.

Global Water Plan credit Westfalia Fruit

Image: Westfalia Fruit Group

Strategies have been developed for South Africa, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Portugal to reduce water use and improve water use efficiency, the group confirmed.

These are made up of specific best practice, measurement and technology-related interventions whose success and progress will be tracked using water-related key performance indicators (KPIs).

Low-flow initiatives helped Westfalia improve its water-use efficiency in 2020 and based on the success of that programme, the company has said it is developing and implementing customised plans for its operations worldwide.

Under a new Global Water Plan, each Westfalia operation has submitted an eight-year strategy that outlines how it will decrease water use and improve water use efficiency.

“Practically, this includes selecting the best-suited water-saving interventions that demonstrate good water-saving potential without compromising the productivity of the operation,” explained Maya da Silva, environment and sustainability specialist at Westfalia Fruit.

”After this, operations will develop implementation roadmaps and timelines for the next eight years along with water-related key performance indicators to track progress and success,” da Silva added. 

These KPIs will be reported by regional ’water champions’ to Westfalia’s sustainability specialist every four months in January, May and September.

Westfalia said that its Global Water Plan was part of the company’s long-term sustainability goals that included achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and becoming ‘lifetime carbon neutral’ by the year of the centenary of the establishment of its first farm in South Africa in 2049.

That will mean the company will have recovered all the carbon it has used in the lifetime of the business.