AkzoNobel - Production Soars with Reducing Water Consumption      

The urgency of water shortage will be at its peak whenever a massive drought occurs in any place. For instance, currently the severe drought has hit Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan provinces and Chongqing in southwestern China and affected more than 50 million people, leaving about 16 million without adequate drinking water. Under such circumstance, manufacturers of industrial products are put under the spotlight as they are regarded as one of the key users of water.
   It seems that proliferation of industrial development is in conflict with water consumption. But AkzoNobel, the largest global paints and coatings company as well as a major producer of specialty chemicals, asserts that this is not necessarily the case.
   The company has put water management as top of its sustainability agenda. Starting the end of 2009, its production sites worldwide started to carry out a self-assessment of current fresh water use. The aim is that each of them will achieve the highest possible of sustainability in water consumption by 2015. Its functional chemicals plants in Ningbo, eastern China, together with the facilities in Rotterdam and Delfzijl, are regarded as taking the lead in rolling out this initiative.
   The self-assessment has been grouped into six risk areas, with between ten and 15 questions in each:
   Water sources: Where does our water come from - could there be any restriction as a result of environmental factors, as well as governmental restrictions?
   Supply reliability: Could supply be threatened by seasonal changes or limitations in the pre-use processing?
   Waste water discharge: Are there local factors near our production sites or legislation changes that could affect or limit how this is carried out?
   Efficiency: How do our sites handle fresh water? Could this be better organized to prevent losses?
   Compliance: Could our facility operations impact on the local or regional fresh water supplies?
   Social competitive factors: Is there anything that might influence external attitudes towards a production site and its water use?
   A ranking system has been devised, with each area awarded a Low, Medium or High risk score. For a site to be considered as having sustainable fresh water use, it needs to be Low in every one.
   The functional chemicals site in Ningbo has its own waste water treatment and water production plants.
   AkzoNobel is building its largest multi-use site in Ningbo which boosts a total investment of some Euro 275 million.