Sustainability report 2019

46 Even though most AAK products do not contain water when leaving the sites, vegetable oil processing requires large amounts of water, mainly for cooling and heating purposes. Therefore, it is of outmost impor- tance for AAK to maintain high focus and continuously optimize the water consumption at our sites. AAK has several projects ongoing for consuming less water. Water consumption and water discharge Water consumption per unit processed material was reduced by 2.3 percent in 2019 compared to 2018. Combined, the Group’s production sites use approx- imately 34,000,000 m 3 of surface water. This water, which is used for cooling, has no contact with products or pollutants and is returned to the source without any change in quality. The discharged water may, however, be slightly warmer than when entering the Group’s system. Ground water and municipal water used in processing totalled 3,211,981 m 3 which is a bit less than in 2018. Consumption of municipal water increased by 9.3 percent. This was partly due to increasing water temperatures in Karlshamn, Sweden but also related to maintenance pumps and new installations in the AAK wells reducing the internal supply of surface water and consequently using more municipal water. Processing water discharge in 2019 increased by 0.1 percent. However, calculated per processed unit material it decreased by 7.3 percent compared to 2018. Water Contributes to: Discharged processing water from AAK sites is treated at own or municipal water treatment sites and is subject to strict control by local authorities. We are happy to see an improvement in our water consumption per processed unit. Going forward, we will also add the external risk assessment of water affecting our business and prepare the production sites to miti- gate potential risks from climate change and extreme weather events. Water discharge Per unit processed material 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 m 3 0.80 0.75 0,72 0,69 0.64 46 Water consumption Per unit processed material 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1.25 1.20 1.15 1.10 1.00 1.23 1.20 1.17 1,18 1.16 m 3