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United Biscuits snacks on big water savings.

United Biscuits had achieved a 43% reduction in water use since 2007, resulting in more than two million cubic metres of water savings.

This has been achieved through a range of measures from investing £2 million in a water recycling plant on its Teesside manufacturing site to using grey water from factory roofs and gutters to flush the companies toilets.

Having originally targeted a 25% saving in water use by 2020 the company increased its aim to 45% in 2010. Now with all factories claimed to contributing to the savings effort the company is on the brink of hitting its revised savings objective.

“Since launching our sustainability programme in 2008 we’ve made significant measurable progress against all our targets” said the companies sustainability committee chair Jeff Van Der Eems. “We’ve now broadened our ambition on sustainability and widened the scope to include the growing and sourcing of ingredients, the main drivers of our actual carbon footprint”

In addition to its water use cut, other 2011 achievements listed in United Biscuits latest sustainability report include securing zero waste to landfill across all manufacturing sites and cutting group-wide carbon emissions by 6%.