- An industrial flagship to support evian®’s constant innovation and its commitments to sustainability;
- € 280 million investment between 2011 and 2020 to complete the transformation of the site;
- Inauguration of the largest food production site in France to achieve carbon neutral status;
- An upgraded bottling facility that is 100% powered by renewable energy;
- The first evian® brand visitors’ gallery open to the public.
A BOTTLING SITE THAT EMBODIES THE COMMITMENTS OF A SUSTAINABLE INTERNATIONAL BRAND
To modernise its unique bottling site, evian® will invest €280 million by 2020 in a facility producing all evian® bottles sold worldwide. Meeting the highest global quality standards, this more sustainable and more efficient site is a new illustration of the brand’s commitment to sustainability.
evian®’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint has led to a number of positive initiatives at the bottling site. Between 2008 and 2016, the brand reduced its total industrial energy consumption by 23% per litre of evian® while increasing the volume of bottlesproduced to meet rising consumer demand. Today, the bottling site is 100% powered by renewable energy. This is part of a worldwide carbon reduction plan which is helping achieve evian®’s global ambition to be carbon neutral by 2020.
As part of that same journey, evian® aims to use 100% recycled materials in its packaging, and is on an ambitious journey to achieve this. By the end of 2017, evian® will use an average of 25% of rPET (recycled plastic), three years ahead of the schedule set out at COP21 (the UN conference on climate change held in Paris in 2015) with the objective to reach 50% for some formats by 2020. Research and innovation teams are dedicated to achieving this target, while maintaining the focus on quality that has driven evian®’s success from the start.
evian® is also expanding its use of more eco-friendly multimodal transportation, with a particular focus on rail freight, with a carbon footprint one-tenth that of road transport. Currently 60% of evian® bottles are shipped by train from a station at the bottling site—one of the largest private railway stations in France—and that figure is expected to rise in the coming years.
PRESERVING THE WATER RESOURCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT TOGETHER WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES
To be at Evian-les-Bains is to be at the heart of the brand. Indeed, evian® natural mineral water draws all its properties from its unique water source. It is here, on the plateau of Gavot, at the heart of the French Alps, that for nearly 150 years, all stakeholders have worked together to build evian®’s heritage with a pioneering spirit. evian® water originates from rain and snow deposited on the catchment area, a millennia-old site surrounded by mountains. The water then filters down on a 15-year journey through rocks, taking on its unique mineral composition, until it reaches the underground source. evian® water truly is a product of nature. The quality and purity of the evian® water that future generations will drink relies on the positive initiatives taken by the evian® teams and local communities today. It is this protection that ensures evian®’s constant mineral composition and taste, unchanged over a century and a half.
For over 25 years, the brand has worked in with the local ecosystem in a spirit of co-creation to innovate and preserve the water resource and promote its vision of a sustainable industrial operation. In 1992, evian® co-founded the Association for the Protection of the evian® Mineral Water Impluvium (known as APIEME) together with 13 municipalities around the catchment area. This private-public partnership aims to balance preservation of the evian® natural mineral water resource and sustainable local development of agriculture within the catchment area. APIEME’s latest initiative was the 2016 roll-out of the Terragr’Eau methanizer, which converts 40,000 tons of organic waste each year into natural fertilizer used by local farmers, while producing biogas to provide power for 1,200 inhabitants— equal to the annual gas consumption of evian®’s bottling site. Terragr’Eau is one of the projects that the Danone Ecosystem Fund1 has supported in an effort to consolidate and develop the business activity of local stakeholders cooperating with Danone.
THE EVIAN® EXPERIENCE: SHARING PASSION THROUGH A UNIQUE IMMERSION AT THE HEART OF THE SITE
The public visitors’ gallery being inaugurated today is designed to share the evian® story and the knowledge and expertise evian® has discovered and acquired over time. Visitors are invited to take part in the true evian® experience, starting with iconic innovations that include the new No-Wrap multi-pack, the Drop and evian® Fruits & Plants, and continuing through unforgettable advertising campaigns and commitments to sustainability. Immersed in the brand’s “Live young” spirit, they will follow the natural mineral water’s path from the source, where it all starts, to the thermal baths that gave Evian-les-Bains its name, learning, en route, about an industrial site that has inspired sustainable initiatives over the years. More than a product, evian® is a modern, forward-looking brand and today its bottling site is an integral part of this.
"The evian® production site’s mission, far from simply bottling natural mineral water, is to continue preserving this miracle of nature, this pure and everlasting resource for the generations to come. It is also reinventing daily our job because it is today that we prepare the future. This future lies where nature created it, here in Evian-les-Bains, where products and innovations have been and will continue to be developed to tackle the economic, social and environmental challenges that lie ahead“, concludes Véronique Penchienati, Evian Volvic World President.
______________
(1) The Danone’s €100 million Ecosystem Fund was created in 2009 to support long term locally-led initiatives with positive social, environmental and business impacts. As of today, this unique fund has led to the creation of 68 projects in 30 countries.
