Our Operations
Water Impact
One in three people do not have enough water to meet their daily needs, according to the World Health Organization. The problem will get worse as the global population grows.
Although most of our products contain little added water, our manufacturing processes use about 13.3 million tonnes of water to make 7.5 million tonnes of product.
We are committed to minimizing our impact on water quality and availability, and are collaborating with our peers to develop an effective long-term strategy. Our water strategy will take into account:
- The total quantity of water used
- The water source, e.g., rainfall or aquifer
- Levels of local water stress
- Wastewater quality
We can be more efficient in our use of water, so between now and 2015 our goal is to reduce total usage by 25 percent.
Not all our operations systematically track the origins of their water — whether it comes from a well, a river, rainwater or municipal supply. This is an area for improvement and will be critical to fully understanding, monitoring and reducing our water impacts in the future.
Performance
To meet our 2015 water goal, we are focused on reducing our use of water for production processes and general use, from municipal and ground water sources. Our facilities have made good progress in reducing water use, using 13,345 thousand m3 water in total in 2010, 17 percent less than in 2007. Mars Petcare has already reached our SiG target for 2015, having reduced water use by 25 percent from the 2007 baseline. Mars Drinks has seen the second largest reduction, cutting water use by 11 percent from the 2007 baseline.
Water Quality
Our long-term objective is to cause zero degradation of water quality. We typically treat our wastewater so it is clean enough to discharge into municipal wastewater systems, where it receives further treatment. Many water utilities only measure the amount of water used, not wastewater discharged, so our data on wastewater volumes are incomplete. We are installing meters to capture our own data directly.
Improving the quality of our wastewater is also important because reducing the volume of water discharged can actually increase the concentration of waste within it. We test wastewater quality periodically but need better systems in place to monitor the volume of our wastewater.
Water Conservation in Australia
In 2009, Wrigley in Asquith, Australia, installed tanks with a total capacity of 90,000 liters, covering 25 percent of the factory’s rooftop. The rainwater captured by these tanks is used for all on-site hard-surface washing, amenities, washrooms and cooling towers. The operation is currently expanding the project to capture a total of 483,000 liters, more than five times the current capacity. When completed, the operation will reduce potable water consumption by approximately 35 percent and take 4.5 million liters less water from the municipal system each year.
Water Self-Sufficiency in Brazil
Our Petcare facility in Mogi Mirim, Brazil, is the first Mars operation to develop a water self-sufficiency program. This program involves a combination of conservation, reuse, rainwater capture and an on-site well. These measures will save some $626,000 per year.
The main savings will come from reductions in water use and necessary treatments as well as the transport and disposal of solid waste generated during treatment.
Water Reduction in Australia
Mars Food Australia (MFA) cut its water use in half by introducing a new wastewater-treatment and -recycling plant in Wyong, New South Wales. The state-of-the-art facility not only recovers and treats wastewater from the manufacturing process, but it has also expanded its spill-management ponds to collect and store storm water from all hard surfaces at the operation. Every drop of rainwater is now captured, treated and reused. This project has been important for MFA, as it operates in a region heavily affected by ongoing drought.
The MFA's water-conservation project won the Industrial Water Project of the Year at the 2010 Global Water Awards, the most prestigious in the industry. It was commended for not only halving the business' annual water consumption but for its innovative use of technology.
Water Purification in Belgium
Mars Food in Olen, Belgium, recently installed a new water-filtration system that purifies the factory’s industrial wastewater. The new three-step system purifies the water to such high quality that it can be discharged into the creek that runs alongside the factory.
* Totals for Mars, Incorporated can be higher than the sum of the segments, because they include Mars IS and Central.
