Enough fresh water for tomorrow’s world
No water...no life. At DSM, we take water-scarcity concerns seriously when we plan and build new plants.
Minimizing our water footprint
Water conservation is essential for the sustainable future of our planet. And, of course, water is an essential element in many of our production processes. That’s why we’re committed to ensuring that the world continues to have enough, clean water.
DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma underlined our commitment to water management when he reaffirmed his commitment to the United Nations Global Compact CEO Water Mandate in 2010. For instance, when we plan and build new plants, we don’t just think about raw-material supply, proximity to customers and infrastructure. Water – and water scarcity – is also a decisive factor.
Our goal is to minimize the water footprint of our production plants. At our DSM Toansa plant, which won the 2009 Green Manufacturing Award for water management efforts, all water is now fully reused or recycled. Our Source Water Protection Plan is set to further minimize our water footprint where we can.
DSM’s global water consumption is divided into surface water, ground water and potable water. Our consumption decreased by approximately 60 million m3 (30%) compared to 2009. The deconsolidation of several units, most notably DSM Agro IJmuiden (Netherlands), resulted in a large decrease, particularly in the consumption of surface water, whereas the increase in production volume caused a relatively moderate increase in the continuing operations.
Waste in water
We amply achieved our target of a 15% reduction in emissions of COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand: an indicator of the degree of pollution of wastewater by organic substances) between 2005 and 2010. Several wastewater treatment plants had been taken in operation or improved in previous years, as reported in previous Triple P reports. In absolute terms, the discharge of COD in 2010 increased by approximately 1,600 tons compared to 2009. This is the balance of an increase of approximately 1,800 tons due to increased production volumes, in combination with some technical problems, and a decrease of approximately 200 tons due to the divestment of several units.
