For years, Danone’s Evian bottled water brand has slowly been improving the efficiency of facilities and logistics while dropping lifecycle emissions of its bottles. Now, Evian is proud to announce that it has officially achieved carbon neutral certification across all the nations where the brand operates. On April 20, the Carbon Trust issued Evian the certification to the internationally recognized carbon-neutral standard PAS 2060.
Carbon Neutrality Efforts
At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), during which the Paris Agreement was announced, Evian set a goal to become carbon neutral. Though the company has previously achieved carbon neutrality in Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada, and the US, it hadn’t reached the status across all of its facilities around the world, until now.
Shweta Harit, the global brand Vice President of Evian, said:
Today’s announcement comes at a moment when we are seeing, in real-time, what can happen when we reduce our impact on the planet. Emissions are lower and pollution levels have dropped. Lessening our environmental footprint is at the core of everything we do at Evian, and that is why today’s announcement is so important for us. The current health crisis provides us all with a renewed impetus to do more and create long-lasting change, and it has been heartening to see the world come together.
In 2017, Evian became the first Danone facility and largest food manufacturing site in France to achieve carbon neutrality. Evian’s bottling site in France committed $280M to upgrade the facility. Now, it’s powered by 100% renewable energy. The facility’s efforts have seen successful results, with its carbon emissions reduced by 90% from 2015 to 2019.
Carbon Footprint Efforts
Between 1993-2018, Evian improved the carbon footprint of its bottles by light-weighting its 1.5L bottles to provide a 17% reduction in the bottles carbon footprint
The company has also lowered its carbon footprint by using trains. For example, when Evian delivers to the UK, the trucks’ carbon footprint is seven times higher than the trains. Now, the company transports half of its entire production volume via train from the facility.
Recycled Plastic Efforts
Evian hasn’t forgotten about the plastic pollution issue either. The company has incorporated recycled plastic (rPET) to its products, with nearly 30% of its selections made from recycled material, including bottles made from 100% rPET.
Later this year, the company plans to launch a new selection of bottles made from 100% recycled plastic.
Covid-19 Relief Efforts
As the pandemic hits the world hard, companies and people have come together to help one another; Evian is one of them. The water bottle company has helped hospitals and shortages around the world, some of which include:
- Evian gave a financial donation to the Red Cross to support urgent needs and supplies. The donation is to help those on the front line specifically.
- In France, the distribution of hand sanitizer faced nationwide shortages due to the lack of containers. To remedy the issue, Evian donated 120K plastic bottles to French pharmacies.
- Also, the company distributed tens of thousands of bottles of water to public clinics and hospitals in France.
- In New York City, USA, Evian donated over 195K bottles of water to hospital workers and City Harvest for the community.
