EcoVadis Deep Dive: Reducing Our Environmental Impact Through Smarter Water Management

As part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitment, we continuously work to reduce the environmental impact of our operations. Our efforts were recently recognized with an 85% EcoVadis score, earning us a Platinum medal and placing us among the top 1%companies assessed worldwide.

In this series of EcoVadis deep dives, we highlight the concrete actions behind this result. In this edition, we focus on reducing environmental impact through better water management.

Investing in sustainable water treatment

At the end of last year, we made an important investment to modernize the water treatment systems at our Venette plant. The goal was to reduce water consumption, lower emissions, and improve the efficiency of our production processes.

The project represented a €214,000 investment, fully supported by the EEC (Energy saving certificates) subsidy scheme, which helped us accelerate this sustainability initiative.

The modernization includes:

• Replacing the bi-osmosis unit used in glycerine production. This system purifies water by pushing it through a membrane that removes up to 99% of contaminants such as bacteria, minerals, salts, and chemicals.
• Replacing the existing osmosis unit that supplies the boiler house. The new unit will also supply the cooling towers of the glycerine installation.
• Installing two new osmosis units to replace the water softeners used for the aerothermal cooling towers in the Lipochemistry installation.
• Replacing polishing softeners and upgrading the automation and control systems.

These improvements made our installations more efficient, modernized our infrastructure, and freed up valuable technical space.

Measurable environmental impact

Projects like this directly improve our environmental performance.

Expected results include:

• 18% reduction in groundwater consumption (about 14,000 m³ per year)
• 20% reduction in municipal water use (about 886 m³ per year)
• 75 tonnes less salt used per year, generating approximately €30,000 in savings

The project also brings additional environmental and workplace benefits:

• Reduced use of chemical water treatment products
• Lower chloride discharge from cooling towers
• Less manual handling of salt bags, reducing the risk of lower back injuries for employees

Turning CSR commitments into real action

Achieving a strong EcoVadis sustainability score is not only about policies and reporting. It is the result of concrete improvements implemented in our operations.

Projects like this water treatment modernization show how operational changes can reduce environmental impact, improve efficiency, and create better working conditions for employees.

By continuing to invest in initiatives like these, we strengthen our ambition to build a more sustainable, responsible, and future-ready industrial operation.

Interested in learning more about our EcoVadis scorecard? Read it here: https://recognition.ecovadis.com/-SZivmXJJUeZH2qrCIxPAA