Our Commitment to Sustainability
Working Today for a Better Tomorrow
Protecting Our Planet
We act responsibly in ways that put the good of our communities above all else. We promote the hydration and wellness benefits of drinking water, and we strive to be good stewards of the environment. We partner with suppliers who support these same goals. By sourcing and processing responsibly, we protect the planet we inhabit. All of this is important to us, to you and to our future.
Water Stewardship
Water Stewardship
As a proud member of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) since 2019, we source all of our bottled waters responsibly. Our water sources are carefully selected and closely monitored to ensure consistent quality and sustainable yield.
Carbon Neutrality
Carbon Neutrality
Becoming a carbon-neutral company is a big goal. It means achieving a net-zero carbon footprint by a combination of eliminating and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling
Recycling
Environmental sustainability is our daily commitment that promises a better tomorrow. We continually seek ways to deliver on our promise to protect the planet we call home. With our industry partners, we support uniform recycling initiatives at the local, state and federal level.
Water Stewardship
We joined the Alliance for Water (AWS) in 2019 as part of our commitment to ensuring our water usage and conservation efforts meet internally recognized standards. Our water sources are carefully selected and closely monitored to ensure consistent quality and sustainable yield.
We are proud to announce that we have become the first company in the world to have a spring water source certified under the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) program, a comprehensive global benchmark for responsible water stewardship. AWS certification demonstrates that Primo Water North America has addressed five aspects of responsible water stewardship: good water governance, sustainable water balance, good water quality, important water-related areas and safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Read our commitment statement to Water Stewardship here. SCS Global Services (SCS), a global leader in third-party certification of sustainability performance confirmed on December 8, 2020 the certification of our Diamond Spring site in Pennsylvania and on December 30, 2020 confirmed the Wekiva Springs site in Florida based on an independent, in-depth assessment. Read our announcements here.
Our certification and water stewardship initiatives in North America are managed by full-time hydrogeologists, responsible for effectively managing our spring water sources. As mentioned, work has been completed for our Diamond Spring site in Pennsylvania and our Wekiva Spring site in Florida. We will begin the certification process for our Georgia and Arkansas spring water sources in 2021. Our goal is to have all of our owned spring water sources certified by the AWS by the end of 2022.
In addition, as a member of the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), our U.S.-based bottling plants meet IBWA's strict Bottled Water Code of Practice and its standards of operation. This includes adhering to the organization's water reduction efficiency standards and careful selection of our water sources, as well as the alignment with the AWS standards.
Carbon Neutrality
Becoming a carbon-neutral company is a big goal. It means achieving a net-zero carbon footprint by a combination of eliminating and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions.
In October 2020, Primo Water North America achieved carbon neutrality across its U.S. operations and is now certified as a #carbonneutral company under The Carbon Neutral Protocol, an international standard administered by Natural Capital Partners. Learn more here.
We continue our path to pursuing cleaner and leaner operations, using more renewable energy. For example, we are shifting some of our transportation fleet from diesel to propane, a domestically produced fuel in abundant supply, which is also 75% cleaner than the current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard for nitrogen oxide emissions.
We reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 168,375 metric tonnes in 2020 through the purchase of renewable energy and carbon offsets. A reduction of 168,375 metric tonnes CO2e is similar to the following:
Greenhouse gas emissions from:
CO2 emissions from:
Greenhouse gas emissions avoided by:
Carbon sequestered by:
Efficient transport
We are working on multiple fronts to improve our transportation efficiency. Recent vehicle purchases promise a 40% increase in fuel productivity. We are also engaging in on-site refueling, which is not only economical, but also reduces air pollution and the environmental impacts of our vehicles.
In addition, to reduce delivery mileage, our drivers use smartphones to optimize their routes. And when we consider new water sources, we search for suitable locations near existing bottling plants, reducing fuel usage and transport distances.
Energy Usage
We have identified opportunities to reduce energy use in our manufacturing plants. For example, we are working to reduce lighting-related energy usage by transitioning to energy-efficient lights in some of our facilities.
Installing LED lighting in some of our bottling plants will significantly reduce our carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions, providing the equivalent of planting 452 acres of trees annually. It will also reduce lighting-related energy operating costs by 64% in these plants.
Water Conservation
Our industry does its part to protect and preserve water resources. As a company, we partner with the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), meeting the organization's water reduction efficiency standards and its strict Bottled Water Code of Practice.
In December 2020, we installed a new reverse osmosis water capacity unit in our Ephrata, Pennsylvania bottling plant to reduce the amount of wastewater discharge and to improve the efficient use of our water resource.
Research shows that the bottled water industry is a minimal user of water, and bottled water production accounts for just 0.01% of all water used in the United States.1 To put that in perspective, total U.S. bottled water consumption is about 19 billion gallons of water per year, which is the amount of tap water New York City uses in about 2.5 weeks.
In addition, the 2018 IBWA's Water and Energy Use Benchmarking Study – of which we were a part – showed that bottled water has the lowest water footprint of all packaged drinks. In North America, bottled water uses only 1.39 liters of water (including the 1 liter consumed) to produce a 1-liter product.
Local Distribution
Locally sourced, locally distributed, locally produced. This is our rallying cry when it comes to our spring sources and proximity to our bottling plants. Overall, when considering a spring source, we try to get as close as possible to a bottling plant to reduce the miles driven to and from the spring source.
Recycling
Environmental sustainability is our daily commitment that promises a better tomorrow. We continually seek ways to deliver on our promise to protect the planet we call home. With our industry partners, we support uniform recycling initiatives at the local, state and federal level.
Packaging
When it comes to packaging, we are focused on reducing, reusing and recycling.
We reduce environmental impact by using less. Over the last 10 years, we have reduced the amount of plastic in our U.S.- and Canada-branded 0.5-liter polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by more than 50% and the caps by 25%.
In addition, we converted our 1-gallon high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottle to a lightweight model – reducing the resin gram weight from 63 grams to 56 grams – which lowered our plastic use by 2.8 million pounds.
To reduce total weight and waste, we have made our plastic cups lighter, too.
We are continuing to work with our suppliers to source environmentally friendly and reduced-plastic packaging options.
In terms of reuse, our U.S.- and Canada-branded 3-gallon (11.3-liter) and 5-gallon (18.9-liter) polycarbonate water bottles are reused up to 50 times. At the end of their usable life, these bottles are recycled and used to make new products. This closed-loop recycling system allows us to reduce our carbon footprint by ensuring that bottles do not end up in landfills.
Regarding recycling, all of our packaging is 100% recyclable, including the bottles, caps and outerwrap. Plus, our 1- and 2.5-gallon bottles are shipped in reusable, recyclable corrugated boxes.
We are also using 25% rHDPE – recycled content – in our new HDPE bottles. In California, we have also begun using rPET bottles, made with 25% recycled content, and we plan to introduce this rPET initiative across the U.S. later this year. These initiatives have saved 2.8 million pounds of plastic resin.
Our refill business also has a positive impact on the environment, giving users the ability to reuse and refill their empty bottles at various retail outlets.
Cups
We are not only interested in what is in your cups, we are also interested in the cups themselves.
To reduce total weight and waste, we have made our plastic cups lighter, and we introduced a 100% biodegradable and compostable paper cup last year. In fact, we offer a wide range of water and coffee cup options that are reusable, recyclable and compostable.
- IBWA Water and Energy Use Benchmarking Study, 2018