Water management

To us, sustainable water management means obtaining freshwater or discharging treated wastewater without negatively impacting aquatic ecosystems. We are also concerned with addressing water scarcity. To determine whether a site is located in a water-stressed area, we apply a risk factor of the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas of the World Resources Institute (WRI). We want to reduce the environmental impact of our wastewater and make our processes more water-efficient. In the medium term, we will also take into account water-related risks that exist in our supply chain when purchasing important raw materials. In the long term, we intend to transparently map water use and environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of our products.

To this end, we have defined two targets: First, by 2025, we aim to lower our “Water Intensity Score” by 10% compared to 2020. Second, by 2030, we want to reduce potentially harmful residues in our wastewater below the no-effect threshold; this is a scientifically defined limit below which no negative environmental impacts are expected.

Our regular EHS audits at our production and development facilities also review site-specific water management practices. Our water management efforts focus more heavily on our manufacturing sites than on our administrative facilities because production generally poses a higher risk to aquatic ecosystems.

Roles and responsibilities

The Group function Corporate Sustainability, Quality and Trade Compliance (SQ) is responsible for water management. At our sites, engineers work in close collaboration with our EHS managers to lower water consumption and treat wastewater. Further information can be found under “Environmental protection”.

Our commitment: Standards and procedures

Our Group-wide Sustainable Water Management Part 1 – Wastewater, Sustainable Water Management Part 2 – Water Use and Sustainable Management Part 3 – Water Risk Management standards detail how we integrate mechanisms of sustainable water management into our management system. All three standards are based on the commitments we made under the Responsible Care^® initiative. At the same time, our Sustainable water management principles set the framework for the three aforementioned standards.

Our Wastewater Standard defines criteria for assessing our wastewater discharges into the ecosystem. It also helps us to achieve our target as regards trace substances in wastewater from our operations. The Water Use Standard sets out mandatory Group-wide requirements for the responsible consumption of water. The Water Risk Management standard establishes a way for us to manage the risks that arise from direct or indirect water extraction and also covers risks such as contaminated rainwater and flooding. We perform internal EHS audits to verify that our sites comply with our three standards. They are all required to measure and assess the risks and impacts of the hazardous substances in their wastewater. Moreover, they must also analyze withdrawal and wastewater risks and comply with the respective requirements of the local authorities.

Water withdrawn from our own sources

For the most part, we draw water used for our production processes from our own wells and source drinking water from local suppliers. In doing so, we do not want water extraction to impair any protected areas, sensitive ecosystems or habitats. Our aim is to extract less water from our own wells than the amounts approved in our permits. At the same time, we keep an eye on trends that could potentially lead to sources being reclassified in the future.

The cooling water used for our production processes generally runs in a circular system. Depending on regulatory standards and the energy footprint, we sometimes use freshwater for cooling in a once-through system. However, this is only done in regions with high freshwater availability. For certain applications, we treat production wastewater and reuse it. In 2022, we recycled a total of 20.7 million m³ of water (2021: 23.5 m³ of water).

Using water more efficiently

We seek to minimize our impact on water availability in the vicinity of our sites. In 2022, we withdrew 13.2 million m³ of water in total (2021: 13.5 million). Local conditions determine whether a sufficient water supply is available. In our water conservation efforts, we pay particular attention to sites in water-scarce areas. To improve our water efficiency, we have therefore defined an intensity score – our Water Intensity Score. The score relates to the amount of water either purchased or withdrawn from our own wells at a site to the number of hours worked, while taking the local availability of water into account. The Gernsheim site (Germany) is excluded from both the score and our water conservation efforts because we must extract a minimum water quantity from our own wells in order to comply with regulatory requirements. In 2022, we lowered our Water Intensity Score by 8.6% in comparison with the baseline year 2020 (2025 target: 10% reduction).

Our site in Rio de Janeiro conducted a project to reduce water consumption by upgrading the on-site wastewater treatment plant and reusing treated wastewater in the cooling towers. After two years of implementation, the average annual volume of water that is reused is approximately 20,000 cubic meter/year, which contributes together with other water saving measures to a reduction of 33% of total water intake compared to 2020.

Our wastewater

In 2022, we generated a total of 12.4 million m³ of wastewater (2021: 13.3 million). This consisted of around 8.6 million m³ of freshwater, which we discharged into surface waters. 3.8 million m³ was classified as “other water” and was treated at external treatment plants or disposed of in an ecologically sustainable manner.

We continuously work to optimize our production streams and purification processes in order to conserve water and minimize residues. An expert has been appointed for each of our business sectors to provide guidance for our sites. Apart from aiming to reduce the amount of pharmaceutical active ingredient residues in wastewater, we expanded our measures to include substances with water-hazardous properties in 2022. All the relevant sites have their own wastewater treatment plants and regularly analyze their wastewater to check for harmful substances.