Evian, the world’s leader in natural mineral water, has unveiled a state-of-the-art bottling plant that’s 100% powered by renewable energy. Part of a €280 million ($336 million) investment with a 2020 goal to go carbon-neutral and modernize Evian’s production facilities in France, it’s also the country’s largest food production site, as parent company Danone points out.
The French site emphasizes the brand’s commitment to sustainability and reducing its carbon footprint, along with that of Danone, as promoted with the hashtag #oneplanetonehealth.
“Faithful to its pioneering spirit and working closely with all local stakeholders in its natural water cycle upstream, its labour pool and its logistics network downstream, Evian has transformed its bottling site, now certified as carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust,” stated Danone Group CEO Emmanuel Faber, who was accompanied at the ribbon-cutting by brand ambassador and tennis pro, Stan Wawrinka.
“This achievement combines a unique workplace organisation, a shift to digital technology, and technologies and sustainability solutions at the cutting edge of our sector worldwide, bringing together everything we need to support the brand’s development while preserving the natural resources we cherish and continuing to develop the local economy.”
As Bloomberg notes, going carbon-neutral is also a way for Danone to deflect criticism as “Evian aims to become the first major spring water brand to go carbon-neutral amid criticism that packaging water from the French Alps and transporting it around the world in plastic bottles causes unnecessary environmental damage.”
Danone plans to start advertising the carbon-neutral efforts on Evian bottles in the U.S. next year, the brand’s head, Veronique Penchienati, told Bloomberg.
Between 2008 and 2016, the brand lowered its industrial energy consumption by 23% per litre of Evian while increasing bottles produced as consumer demand rose for water as opposed to soda. Currently, the bottling site is 100% powered by renewable energy as part of the brand’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2020.
By the end of 2017, Evian will use, on average, 25% of rPET (recycled plastic) — three years ahead of the schedule set out at COP21. Beyond bottle manufacturing, the company is focused on multimodal transport, with a particular spotlight on rail freight which has a carbon footprint one-tenth that of road transport.
Currently 60% of Evian bottles are shipped by train from one of the largest private railway stations in France with 13 km of rails and departures every 4 hours.
Evian-les-Bains, on the plateau of Gavot, at the heart of the French Alps, is where a 15-year journey begins through mountainous rocks as the water takes on its unique mineral composition.
A public visitors gallery will share the ‘Evian Experience,’ following the natural mineral water’s path from the source to the thermal baths that gave Evian-les-Bains its name.
Evian is sold in more than 140 countries, and the modernized site, 130,000 square meters, the equivalent of 13 football fields, has ten new linear production lines, the fastest of which produces 72,000 bottles per hour.
With the global market for bottled water expected to reach $230 billion by 2021, up from $198 billion in 2017, according to Euromonitor, Evian is poised to continue and grow its sector dominance in a sustainable manner.