Sara Hollyman
Fonterra’s Brightwater plant is part of a bold new target to save more than 3.4 billion litres of water every year.
The co-operative announced last week that six of its manufacturing sites in water-constrained regions will reduce their water use by 30 per cent by 2030 as part of its move to accelerate sustainability to the heart of its strategy.
Upper South Island operations manager Chris Win welcomes the challenge and says the whole team is on board with the initiative.
“To be honest it’s pretty cool, we have to go to community meetings and be accountable for our site, but more than that, this is our community, we live here and our staff get asked tough questions when they’re out, so it’s great to be able to say ‘well, here’s what we’re doing.’”
Fonterra says Brightwater has been chosen as one of six plants to participate because water is in high demand in the region.
Chris says the team learnt a lot during the drought early in the year.
“It was a tough time for the area but when you get the right reason to do something it allows you to focus.
The water constraints were felt by a lot of businesses and residents, so we are, I guess, further ahead in the thought process of how we are going to rise to this challenge.”
The site has already made a start with an upgraded metering system and several other new initiatives in the pipeline.
This includes using recycled water to wash tankers and making repairs on machinery that they didn’t realise wasn’t functioning as well as it could be.
Chris says there are three things to think of when looking at systems and processes to save water in the factory.
“There’s what can we do with money, what we do with our processes, and then also what we can do individually, so some of it is actually attitude.”
Fonterra chief operating officer global operations, Robert Spurway, says taking a targeted approach to the six sites will ultimately result in better efficiency and outcomes.
“Water is a precious resource and we can’t take it for granted. For some parts of New Zealand, water isn’t always in the right place at the right time, and our water use in these regions can put stress on local water sources and the communities that rely on them.
“We’ve focused on the six sites where major water savings can have the greatest impact. This means we can target efforts and investment into those regions most in need.
He says the target will require some clever ideas and creative thinking but the site teams are already rising to the challenge.
“Reducing our water use at our manufacturing sites is the right thing to do for the environment and for the communities we operate in. That’s why we’ve set this new target, which will save billions of litres of water,” says Robert.
Brightwater is one of the six sites, alongside Maungaturoto, Lichfield, Darfield, Clandeboye and Edendale.
Fonterra’s Brightwater plant is located at 30 Factory Road.More information about all their plants is available at the website www.fonterra.com.