Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages has become the first food and beverage company to certify 100% of its bottling sites to the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard.

The AWS Standard is an independent framework for water stewardship, covering water use within operations, local watersheds and surrounding communities. Certification spans Nestlé Waters' sites across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia.

The company confirmed that all 39 sites globally are now certified, ahead of World Water Day on 22 March 2026. Two sites – Buxton, UK, and Tunuyán, Argentina – achieved AWS Platinum status, the highest level of certficication.

Alongside certification, the company reported progress on water regeneration. It has implemented 70 projects globally, delivering 14.1 million cubic metres of water per year by the end of 2025, measured using the World Resources Institute’s Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting methodology. These projects are designed to support its target of restoring more water than it uses in operations. Projects are carried out with local partners and focus on shared water challenges at catchment level.

In France, the company is investing €25 million over five years in the Agrivair Garrigue programme to support water resource protection and biodiversity in the Gard region. In Italy, it is expanding its FONTE programme with a further €40 million investment through to 2030, building on an earlier €30 million commitment to protect water basins and support local communities linked to its brands.

Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages has also extended its collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which provides scientific guidance and supports alignment with the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions.

Muriel Lienau, CEO of Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages, said: “We are pleased to share these significant milestones today on AWS certification and water regeneration. Good water stewardship is part of our DNA and strong water resilience is a strategic imperative for our business – that's why we look to collaborate everywhere we operate to ensure we address any shared water challenges, now and for the future. This is something we’ve been working on for decades.”

Lienau added: “We remain committed to protect, restore and return water where we operate. Water resilience has a growing awareness on the international agenda and we know no one can achieve this on their own. By partnering with experts, local organisations and communities we know that collaboration at catchment level is the key for meaningful impact.”

Adrian Sym, CEO of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, said: In an era of increasing resource volatility, where individuals and organisations are passionate about making a difference but don’t always know how, a global independent standard that includes an accessible, independent and practical framework for water stewardship and landscape protection is essential."

“Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages' approach to collaborative, localised, context-based solutions, tailored to each bottling site is exemplary. It’s fantastic to see a large global company approaching this bottom-up all over the world, rather than top-down or by taking a mass rebalance approach to offset water usage."

James Dalton, global director for water and wetlands at IUCN, added: “Integrated action and decision-making on water, biodiversity and climate is essential for long-term business resilience. NW&PB’s water stewardship journey is a testament to this. As IUCN and NW&PB pivot towards this new phase of engagement, we will place emphasis on consolidating and expanding the positive impact of existing water regeneration projects on nature and driving collective action to protect and restore freshwater ecosystems in strategic catchments.”