In many areas of the world, the scarcity of clean water presents significant challenges to public health and the environment. An important part of our responsibility as a global health care company is to help ensure our water usage does not negatively affect the communities where we operate by diminishing the supplies of clean water or degrading the quality of that water.
Pfizer requires its facilities worldwide to quantify water use, report performance against reduction targets, and support community efforts during drought conditions. We follow the framework under the UN Global Compact Water Mandate using the six core elements as guideposts for our Water Sustainability Program.
We are broadening our data collection scope for water metrics to align more closely with those of the Global Reporting Initiative. Pfizer’s three-year water strategy includes the development and execution of a dual track program. Track 1 aims to support sites through onsite assessment and guidance in meeting the company’s 2020 Environmental Sustainability Goals. Track 2 aims to assess and reduce potential water related business risks at sites located in areas preliminarily identified as water stressed. Both tracks support an increased focus on water conservation projects.
In particular, we aim to:
Build our global Water Sustainability Program following the UN Global Water Mandate;
Achieve our 2020 public water reduction goal of reducing water withdrawal (excluding non-contact cooling water) by 5% compared to a 2012 baseline.
Understand water-related risk and opportunities in our operations; and
Implement improved practices to further efficiencies in water recycling and reuse.
Notable actions we're undertaking to meet our climate change commitments include:
Routine leak detection and repair of fresh water distribution lines;
Reusing treated wastewater in cooling towers;
Treating wastewater for landscape irrigation;