Collaboration will be key to the future of water stewardship

Water stewardship at Unilever

Meijer oversees the implementation of the company’s external water stewardship commitment, which, broadly, is to implement water stewardship programmes in 100 per cent of Unilever’s water-stressed factories by 2030.

As of 2025, the company reports on 30 factories that have water stewardship programmes in place. These are spread across four business groups: food (this group will be separated out from 2027); home care; beauty and wellbeing; and personal care.

“It started in India,” Meijer explains, “and we have since extrapolated our experiences there to our factories all over the world. In many of these places, our factories operate in water-stressed locations.”

Unilever’s programs are aligned with the Alliance for Water Stewardship’s (AWS) guidance, which means each of Unilever’s 30 factories covered by the programme is assessed against a wide range of standards that help the company understand water use and impact, both on site and in the local catchment. 

“We’re assessing our stakeholder relationships,” begins Meijer, “and how much water we are saving in our factories, but also quantifying how much we replenish and comparing that to how much we consume.”

Current trends in Water Stewardship

Global tech companies have been talking about their water commitments, especially in terms of how much they consume and replenish, for several years. Global technology and data centre companies have all set ambitious targets at the heart of their wider sustainability goals.

“The AI boom has seen leading companies, such as the typical American tech companies, investing quite heavily in water stewardship,” Meijer says. 

At the same time, water stewardship standards were emerging from organisations like AWS, Water Research Centre (WRC), WWF, and World Resources Institute (WRI). 

“Most of their commitments and statements focus on replenishing more water than their data centres consume, which they do. And, in my experience, I see that they are becoming more ambitious in their goals.”

Meijer points out that the urgency around water conservation and replenishment is clear, and the consequences are here and now, making it everyone’s priority going forward.  

“This has caused momentum for stewardship,” Meijer adds.

Do companies feel external pressure to account for water use?

Meijer explains that changing climate and weather patterns – changing weather patterns, prolonged droughts and increasingly severe heatwaves – have forced companies to think harder about their water use.

Operational resilience is vital. “Some of our factories are really facing water stress,” Meijer begins. “They are facing declining groundwater levels, and if we continue how we are for many more years, they will face the prospect of having no water. They are facing increased pollution. They're facing increasing water stress in the communities, and both in and around factories. And the supply chain is feeling it.”

And then there's regulatory pressure governing water use: The EU is implementing its water reuse regulations; in India, there are strict regulations; Egypt operates zero liquid discharge regulations. 

Interestingly, Meijer explains that there still isn’t a huge demand from consumers for lowering the water footprint across the value chain of the products they use.

Following the lead of large corporations can also drive momentum, according to Meijer. “It’s peer benchmarking; if a competitor suddenly ups their water stewardship commitments, then why don't we then do that as well?” 

The future of water stewardship is already here

Collaborating with peers who operate in the same catchment areas will become more vital in the future. 

“We always talk about it, but now it becomes real,” Meijer explains. “I have conversations with peers, and we often look for the same positive impact in the same basin, which can result in us working on a joint project with the same partners. You can synergise bigger projects if you do it together.”

Meijer says he is seeing more companies making commitments and hopes this desire for corporations to collaborate snowballs to include non-consumer-facing companies, local governments, etc.

“If Unilever is replenishing as much water as we consume, that doesn't change the basin level resilience, right?” he explains. “Others really need to come together; it needs to go several tiers further, but I do think the field will develop more and more.”

He is clear that this needs to happen sooner rather than later. 

“Floods and droughts have been on our doorstep since last year,” he adds. “And we might not have the luxury to work on 2050 targets; we have to move now so that we can face next year's drought situation.”

This pattern of droughts and floods will drive water efficiencies. “I think companies are going to prepare better and better to become more water efficient, replenish more water, and make sure they have water,” Meijer adds. “The goal is also to have good relationships with communities on the water topic; to have the social license to operate is both a key driver and an important outcome of water stewardship. If it's enough, that will be the question.”

Water efficiencies in factories 

Meijer points out that the operational water footprint for most companies like Unilever is relatively small compared to upstream use (e.g. agriculture) and downstream use (e.g. water used in conjunction with products by consumers).

“Ultimately, we have to either touch agriculture or downstream water consumption to save large volumes of water,” he explains. “But looking inside our own factories and reducing the water is important. We need to be running water-efficient operations.”

Not only does this reduce water consumption, it also requires less energy, fewer materials, etc. Innovations, such as increased use of AI for leak detection, for reducing base flow consumption, and even for identifying where the biggest water footprint sits in your operation, will be important to drive efficiencies. But there will always be a threshold of water use that cannot be touched.

“If you are a beverage company, for example, most of your water still goes into your product bottles, and there's a threshold of the amount of water that you can't use because it goes into your product,” Meijer explains. “And with all the AI and tech and innovations in the world, you're not going to touch that fraction of your water use.”

The Business Case challenge for water stewardship

One of the biggest challenges for stewardship is making the business case for water. 

“Water is relatively cheap or very cheap, until it runs out,” Meijer begins. “So the business case to invest in water-saving technologies or even replenishment is not always easy to find.”

He suggests you need to get creative; to build the case, you need to promote co-benefits of investing in the technologies or expertise. For example, making a case for the true price of water, or by looking at associated energy-reduction costs and regulatory pressure. Other pressures include rising water and treatment costs, as well as increasingly stringent permitting requirements.

Another challenge is meeting public demand. As mentioned earlier, there is not the same public pressure to reduce water in consumer products as there is for something like carbon. 

However, this does not mean water savings can be ignored. Companies can continue exploring product and formulation innovations that reduce water use across the value chain while still meeting consumer needs and expectations,” suggests Meijer.

The link between water stewardship and innovation

AWS defines four key elements of water stewardship:

• Recognising that water challenges affect whole catchments, not just the water user’s direct sphere of influence.
• Understanding that water challenges are diverse. They can involve a lack of water, too much water, seasonal variations in availability, poor water quality, inadequate access to sanitation and hygiene, poor water governance, and disruption to ecosystems.
• Knowing that it is essential to engage with other water users and key stakeholders to overcome water challenges by coordinating and aligning solutions.
• Acknowledging that water stewardship is a journey of continual improvement rather than a defined outcome. New opportunities arise from new connections made by engaging stakeholders and learning more about a catchment.

Collaboration and innovation are vital for the success of ongoing and future stewardship projects. Catchments are so large and challenges diverse that only by working together with other companies and key stakeholders, like local communities and governments, will water use be sustainable long-term.

“It is important that we make connections, to create trust and to inspire each other,” Meijer states. “An event like Aquatech is a catalyst that brings everyone together, so that we can showcase our work, challenge each other and learn from each other. We can meet pump suppliers, implementation partners, and other companies on their water stewardship journey. It’s a place where innovation meets action and thought leadership.”