BUSINESS ACTION ON WATER CHALLENGES
Water is a vital component of many of our manufacturing processes, and every Jabil site makes a conscious effort to minimize water usage in our processes. Our water stewardship actions help to strengthen business continuity, protect the environment in which we operate and save on costs.
We began having our acquired water data verified by a third party in fiscal year 2019. In fiscal year 2021, we conducted a refreshed study on our facilities worldwide to understand where each site is in terms of water stress areas in accordance with World Resources Institute (WRI) information, in order to set goals that further enhance our water conservation efforts. Our purchased water has increased 33 percent over our 2019 baseline – reflecting the organic growth we experienced and adding a large new business unit. Our sites periodically review their processes that require water use in search of opportunities to reduce or eliminate the need for newly acquired water. Our site in Kwidzyn, Poland, for example, identified a water curtain utilized in their painting process that relied on a chemical cleaning method that was both expensive and waste intensive. This inspired the site to come up with a solution that would reduce the quantity of waste generated; the amount of chemicals consumed; and the volume of water required.
In January 2021, the site replaced this treatment process with a mechanical one, which uses a centrifuge to separate particulates from the process water. As a result of the new, more efficient process, the site realized an overall 70 percent decrease in waste generation; an 80 percent reduction in water consumption; up to a 95 percent reduction in chemical usage; and a significant reduction in operating costs.
Our site in Pune, India, identified an opportunity to help tackle the water scarcity problem in the region and promote awareness of the importance of water conservation. This entailed the safe reuse of treated sewage water. For this domestic wastewater recycling project, some of the treated water from the on-site sewage treatment plant was re-routed for use for toilet flushing purposes, while the remainder continued to be used for gardening irrigation. The treated sewage water parameters are maintained in accordance with the Maharashtra pollution control board requirements. This project was completed in fiscal year 2020 and saves an average of 20,000 liters of water per day from the local water supply government authority, while also allowing for purchased water cost savings for the site.
Over the last few years, our site in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, has supported conservation efforts in their region, where there is increasing stress on water resources, through the development of water reuse projects. For their recycling wastewater project, water that was discharged from machine washing activities is being treated and transferred to be used as supply water for flushing toilets. This arrangement diverts an average of 100,000 liters of water per day from the wastewater treatment system to the washroom toilets and saves on water costs. A second project, which was completed in fiscal year 2021, involves the treatment and reuse of deionized process water from the production line for the cooling tower. This setup saves an average of 43,000 liters of city water withdrawals per day.
