Purple goes green: Cadbury updates on its 2020 vision on climate change
Last updated 21/04/2009 10:50:53
Cadbury updates on its 2020 vision on climate change
Confectioner Cadbury has announced a 17% reduction in water consumption by an increased efficiency of production, recovery, harvesting and recycling water, the company reported.
Last year Cadbury had achieved its target of having water reduction programmes in place in 100% water scarce sites, which currently affects two in every four people.
Cadbury has now extended its water reduction programmes across all its sites, not just those which are water scarce.
Cadbury's Asia and Pacific business units are leading activity in this area and helping to inform wider development. Since early 2008 Cadbury has started to share lessons from these businesses, through workshops and water management toolkits, with other business units
Recognising that reducing water consumption is not enough, Cadbury is working with local communities in water scarce areas to achieve ‘water positivity', giving more water back to the watershed than is taken out.
Methods including water recovery and harvesting have been implemented by plants to achieve this, such as the plant in Bangalore, India; or recycling, such as the Lagos plant in Nigeria.
Cadbury India: Bangalore case study
In Bangalore in the South of India Cadbury has a plant producing Halls candy and Bubbaloo gum. Bangalore exists in an area of physical water scarcity and the Cadbury Bangalore factory aims for a goal of zero water discharge.
The factory has harvested, cleaned and filtered rainwater for recharging the aquifer, providing assistance for 40% of the population dependant on groundwater. The factory has implemented forms of capturing this water for recovery and re-using it from the 60 hectare site. The storm water from the roof of the factory is collected and is re-used directly into cooling towers and boilers.
A three-phased approach is in operation in Bangalore:
- Phase one: Rain Water Harvesting. By collecting the rain water from the 15,000 sq m of factory roof, water will be saved and returned to the aquifer.
- Phase two: recover process water from the waste water treatment plant. With appropriate treatment, the water can be re-used in cooling towers, boilers and toilets.
- Phase three: take the water from the storm water dam, filter it and return it to the aquifer during the monsoon season.