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Resource Efficiency
Delivering effective waste prevention practices across the business.
Recognizing that our planet has finite resources, we are conscious of the materials we work with through our global operations. At Univar Solutions, we work to improve resource efficiency through stronger waste prevention, circularity, and responsible water management across our operations. Instead of managing our materials with a linear mindset, from production to consumption to disposal, we focus on reducing waste at source, recovering more value from materials, and improving operational efficiency over time.
As part of our strategy to 2030, we are evolving our approach to resource use to reflect a broader resource efficiency mindset. This includes reducing operationally generated hazardous waste intensity, embedding circular practices where practical, and building water resilience at high-water-risk locations. Through this work, we aim to reduce environmental impact, strengthen operational performance, and create value for our customers and communities.
Explore how we are implementing resource efficiency practices across Univar Solutions and working with our business partners to reduce waste, improve circularity, and support responsible water use throughout the lifecycle of our products and services.
Dr. Liam McCarroll
Senior Director of Global Sustainability
“At Univar Solutions, we approach resource efficiency as both a responsibility and an opportunity. It is our responsibility to reduce waste, use water more effectively, and apply circular economy principles wherever practical across our operations. It is also an opportunity to improve how we work, lower costs, reduce risk, and help our customers advance their own sustainability ambitions through better resource management solutions.”
Where we take action
Univar Solutions’ executive management fully supports efforts to improve resource efficiency across our operations. Building on the progress made to date, we are now focused on a 2030 resource efficiency approach that emphasizes effective waste prevention practices across the business. This includes reducing hazardous waste generation through operational and planning efficiencies, applying life-cycle-conscious approaches to remediation, improving stock management to reduce waste volumes, and strengthening water resilience at high-water-risk locations.
Infrastructure and Investment:
- Procurement of returnable packaging
- Increased recycling services at our facilities
Processes and Procedures
- Finding opportunities for general waste recycling
- Identifying beneficial reuse options for waste
- Reviewing processes to find waste elimination opportunities
Culture
- Ongoing communications on local action
- Cross business action to support resource efficiency
2025 Performance Highlights
- Reduced hazardous waste by 4 percent from baseline, while continuing progress toward our 2030 goal to reduce operationally generated hazardous waste intensity by 20 percent
- Increased landfill diversion by 108 percent from baseline, reflecting significant progress in non-hazardous waste segregation, recycling, and diversion practices
- Achieved sustainable water use baselining and efficiency action plans at all identified high-water-risk sites
- Reduced total water waste by 30 percent from baseline, exceeding our 2025 goal and supporting our 2030 focus on water waste intensity reduction at high-water-risk sites
Addressing responsible water management
Water management remains a key focus for Univar Solutions’ operations teams, particularly at sites located in areas with current or predicted high water risk. We use a range of water efficiency methods to reduce the amount of water wasted in our operations, and our operations and engineering teams consider water efficiency performance as part of future investment planning.
Looking ahead to 2030, our focus is on building water resilience by minimizing water waste intensity, excluding water used in products, across all high-water-risk locations. All identified high-water-risk locations now have baselining and efficiency action plans in place, providing a stronger foundation for continued improvements over the next goal period.
Promoting a circular economy
Our approach to resource management is designed to minimize waste and apply circular economy principles wherever practical across our operations. Through our Environmental Champions Network, teams advance local recycling efforts, reduce unnecessary waste streams, and support initiatives that improve resource use. We continue to expand practical circular actions, including reconditioned and recycled packaging solutions, container return programs, pallet recycling initiatives, and line-flush reuse opportunities.
As part of our 2030 resource efficiency strategy, we are continuing to focus on waste prevention rather than waste management alone. That means addressing waste at source, improving operational planning, and applying lifecycle-conscious decision-making to reduce waste volumes over time while increasing the value recovered from materials already in use.
Delivering sustainability solutions for our customers through ChemCare
In addition to managing our own resource use, Univar Solutions’ ChemCare Material Management Services team leverages our chemical distribution, logistics, assets, and resources to reverse distribute clients’ products, materials, and waste. ChemCare works with manufacturing, industrial, and municipal customers to create and deliver end-to-end sustainable waste management solutions that help minimize waste creation across the value chain.
Case study: Partnership with Novozymes to Provide Biological Solutions for Waste and Wastewater Treatment
Univar Solutions is a leading wastewater treatment provider in the United States and Canada. With an expansive product portfolio and an experienced team of experts, we provide specialized market expertise, technical assistance and tailored solutions for waste and wastewater management stages. In September 2021, we advanced our wastewater treatment capabilities through a new agreement with Novozymes, the world leader in biological solutions.
Novozymes' biotechnology helps users implement more sustainable wastewater treatment systems and allows customers to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and produce cleaner water. The new agreement reinforces Univar Solutions' ability to service municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, providing bioaugmentation, biogas and sludge management enzymatic and microbial treatment solutions.
*Goal set from our 2019/2020 average baseline
