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Contributes to:
Water
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 importance
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 approximately
34,000,000 m3 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 m3 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 discharge
Per unit processed material
0.80
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
m3
0.90
0.80
0.70
0.60
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 mitigate
potential risks from climate change and extreme
weather events.
0.75
0,72
0,69
0.64
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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
m3