WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--evian®, the number one premium global natural spring water brand, announced today that it has been audited and certified by the Carbon Trust as a carbon neutral brand in the U.S. and Canada. The Carbon Trust is an international non-profit that helps organizations and companies reduce their carbon emissions and become more resource efficient. This certification marks a major milestone in evian®’s journey to reach worldwide carbon neutrality by 2020, a commitment made by its corporate parent, Danone, at COP 21 where the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. evian® is on course to become Danone’s first global carbon neutral brand. Bottles with the Carbon Trust certification seal will be available starting in January 2018.
“Consuming evian® is voting for the world we want to live in and a sustainable future, as evian® delivers a carbon neutral spring water to its U.S. and Canadian consumers. As a brand, it’s a core component to the success of Danone’s Alimentation Revolution,” said Emmanuel Faber, Chief Executive Officer of Danone. “The Alimentation Revolution encompasses our efforts to work with business partners and consumers to produce, market and consume food in a new way – one that protects and nourishes the health of people and the planet, and where our brands can be a force for good.”
“evian®’s carbon neutrality milestone and overall sustainability platform reinforces the brand’s position as a leader in the bottled water category,” said Olivia Sanchez, VP Marketing at Danone Waters of America. “The care for our source and providing consumers with the purest of spring waters for over 200 years makes our brand unique and underlies our commitment to environmental protection and preservation.”
Since 1789, evian® has been sourced from the same unique spring at the heart of the French Alps, and its unique composition is a result of nature’s precious water cycle. From its inception, evian® has worked in harmony with local communities at the source to protect its catchment area, ensure sustainable development of the local ecosystem and preserve evian® natural spring water’s unique purity. evian®’s care of its source has enabled it to achieve recognition as a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention, a partner of UNESCO. Signed in 1971, the Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. Furthering its efforts to protect its water resource as well as encouraging sustainable agriculture, in 2016 evian® inaugurated the Terragr’Eau methanizer, which converts 40,000 tons of organic waste every year from mountain farms into biogas for 1,200 inhabitants nearby, the equivalent of its annual bottling site consumption.
Over time, evian®’s sustained actions to reduce its emissions, combined with the creation of credits through the Livelihoods Carbon Fund, have enabled it to make carbon neutrality certification for emissions in the U.S. and Canada a reality. To help reduce its carbon footprint, evian® uses more environmentally conscious transportation modes such as trains and ships for delivering product to North America.
For packaging, in addition to all evian® bottles and caps being 100% recyclable, packaging will have 25% rPET on average by the end 2017 in North America. evian®’s long term, global ambition is to use 100% recycled materials for its products. All of evian®’s products come from its state-of-the-art bottling site in Evian-les-Bains, France. This site, the first carbon neutral food and water site in France, is the result of a $280 million investment and is 100% powered by renewable energy.
In the service of evian®’s greater goal to protect its natural purity and preserve global ecosystems, the brand is reducing its carbon footprint across the entire evian® lifecycle: through bottle design, production and transport, as well as through a carbon sequestration partnership with the Livelihoods Carbon Fund. To date, Livelihoods has planted 130 million trees, 85 million being mangrove trees, offsetting 10 million tons of CO2. These trees absorb carbon and produce oxygen, naturally propagating carbon credits. evian®’s work with Livelihoods for the past decade has not only naturally captured carbon emissions but helped to preserve and restore water ecosystems and coastal communities worldwide.
“This isn’t a ‘feel good’ approach for evian®. For more than 25 years, we’ve been a leader in sustainability initiatives,” said Antoine Portmann, General Manager Danone Waters North America. “We owe everything to nature. That’s why we preserve it through efforts such as responsibly managing our water source, packaging innovation and now, carbon neutrality in North America – a big step towards achieving our overall carbon reduction goals for the evian® brand.”
To achieve its ambitious objective of becoming a global carbon neutral brand by 2020, evian® will continue to execute upon its pioneering programs in North America and the rest of the world. It will continue to advance its ambitious journey to have a positive impact on the environment and the lives of people today, tomorrow and always.
For more information about evian sustainability initiatives and images of its new carbon neutral bottling site, please visit: http://www.evianfactory2017.com/en/
About evian®
evian® natural spring water comes from the heart of the French Alps, a unique geological site in the world. For more than 15 years, it travels through the rocks, where it is enriched with essential minerals. evian® has been working for over 25 years to protect natural surroundings of the source, in an effort to preserve evian® natural spring water’s exceptional quality. Naturally pure and uniquely balanced, evian® natural spring water is a healthy choice throughout the day.