The earth’s water resources are unequally distributed and threatened by increasing pollution and overexploitation. One of the global challenges of sustainable development is to responsibly use this important resource. The reduction of water and wastewater is also a focal area of Henkel’s sustainability strategy. The central idea reads: achieving more with less.
Mar 22, 2016 Düsseldorf / Germany
Saving water – today and every day
Whether it is through improvements in production or the development of sustainable innovations: Henkel continuously reduces its water consumption – during the past five years about 23 percent. With the theme “Water and Jobs,” this year’s World Water Day of the United Nations on March 22nd, lays focus on the global importance of resources for both the economy, and employment.
Every minute, the plant in Wassertrüdingen in Germany fills up to 350 bottles of shower gel. Thanks to the highly efficient cleaning method applied between filling operations, this line saves more than 90 percent wastewater per cleaning cycle.
A view along the value chain shows, that up to 80 percent of the footprint generated comes from the use of our products and not during the production. Therefore, the company strives to develop products that enable its consumers and customers to make their own contributions to save water – all the way from detergent and shampoo to industrial technologies.
Recoloring instead of rebuying
One example are the Dylon textile colors: powerful dye technology makes it possible to give fabrics a completely new look quickly and easily. Thus, Dylon helps to prolong the life cycle of fabrics while reducing their footprint. The advantage in terms of sustainability especially lies in the reduced water consumption. Around 85 percent is saved on the water-intensive cotton production, especially on the irrigation of cotton fields. Dyeing a pair of jeans with Dylon uses at least 100 times less water than is needed to produce a new pair. That means annual savings of a total of 80 billion liters of water, or the equivalent of the amount of drinking water consumed per person each year by up to 3.9 million people in typical cotton-growing regions.
The Dylon fabric dyes make it possible to easily change or refresh textile colors, through both washing machines or hand washing.
Saving water made easy
Whether through washing or showering – each individual can contribute in everyday life to protect the scarcity of water. Therefore, Henkel is trying to promote responsible and sustainable consumption through targeted communication.
With the interactive resource calculator of Schauma, everyone can inform themselves online, how energy consumption changes through regulation of different water temperatures and shower time.
