Water Security Builds Our Resilience to Climate Change

On average, 70% of global freshwater withdrawals are in agriculture. Bayer commits to drive positive change in water productivity in water scarce regional cropping systems, starting with rice, which is responsible for up to 43 % of the world’s irrigation water withdrawals. The company is committed to improve water use per kilogram of crop by 25% by 2030, by transforming rice-cropping systems for smallholder customers in the relevant regions where Bayer operates. In addition, Bayer’s existing commitments of reducing the environmental impact of its crop protection portfolio by 30% by 2030 also contributes to water quality.

Bayer is developing a concept to integrate water quality and quantity into business decisions and processes that will be rolled out from 2024 onwards. The company will develop a methodology to place a value on water and incorporate it into investment processes. Already in 2021, water and wastewater matters represented approx. 10% of Bayer’s total CapEx projects.

Bayer evaluates the sustainability performance of all key suppliers and of selected high-sustainability-risk suppliers including water as an evaluation criteria. As an important step forward, Bayer has launched its new Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC), with dedicated items to address water and wastewater. At the same time the company will continue to drive improvements in water-use efficiency with growers across seed production.

Bayer is committed to provide safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to all employees at its sites. Bayer will further expand its engagement to selected communities where Bayer operates. Bayer continues to minimize emissions at its sites worldwide, including emissions into wastewater. Beyond that, Bayer has established very strict voluntary discharge limits for active ingredients into wastewater at all sites where they are produced. Bayer will build upon the already existing water management systems to optimize the use of water at relevant sites in water-scarce areas and extend them to sites that are forecasted to be in water-scarce regions by 2030. Bayer will set context relevant water targets for our own operations by 2025 that are to be achieved by 2030.

Addressing the water crisis will require broad-based, joint action from a myriad of stakeholders. Bayer is well connected in the water space via its involvement in the World Meteorological Organization for Water and Climate Leaders, its active participation in the Water Resilience Coalition and also its partnership with activist Mina Guli as  well as with the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), an initiative launched during COP27 at the UNCCD Ministerial Meeting. Bayer will make use of these strong partnerships to assemble and connect the right leaders and ensure appropriate private sector engagement in the upcoming water debate.