Nestle Pizza Factory Cuts Water by 7.4 Million Gallons a Year

by | Oct 18, 2012

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Nestle USA’s Pizza Division – whose brands include DiGiorno, Jack’s, California Pizza Kitchen and Tombstone – has reduced its water usage by 7.4 million gallons per year at its factory in Little Chute, Wis., using GE’s advanced water-treatment chemical technology.

In addition to achieving greater water efficiency, the factory has also reduced its sewer discharge by 7.4 million gallons per year. The combined reductions translate into about $50,000 in cost savings from avoided water purchase costs and discharge fees, Nestlé says.

Little Chute’s city water is challenging to treat to meet industrial cooling water specifications because of its hardness and alkalinity. Standard chemical treatments were unable to treat it adequately because high concentrations produced scaling in the cooling towers, which decreased cooling efficiency and required additional maintenance, according to Nestlé.

Also, the age of the water system made consistent control of the cooling operation difficult, and it couldn’t be integrated with plant data systems.

GE provided its GenGard water-treatment chemistry with stress tolerant polymer (STP) and TrueSense controls for the plant’s four main ammonia condensers. These products allowed Nestlé to precisely control the cooling water and enable more cycles where the water-treatment chemicals are in high concentrations. As a result, the Little Chute factory is able to reuse its cooling water to a much greater degree.

As a result of these improvements, GE awarded the facility its Return on Environment Award. The award recognizes a company for improving environmental and operational goals while balancing industrial demands.

Nestlé ranked no. 1 on the Carbon Disclosure Project’s list of the world’s best companies in terms of climate change disclosure and performance, published last month. Nestlé shared top billing with Bayer; both companies received perfect 100 disclosure scores and A performance ratings.

At the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June, Nestlé’s CEO was among the 45 CEOs from major international companies who agreed to set targets on their own water efficiency and wastewater management in factories and operations, and called on governments attending summit to make global water security a top priority.

The 45 CEOs — all of whom have endorsed the Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate — have pledged to work with suppliers to improve their water practices, and partner with nongovernmental organizations, UN agencies, governments and public authorities, investors, and other stakeholders on water-related projects and solutions.

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