Water is vital to human and community development; it is also the primary ingredient of the products and central to the manufacturing process of GSD Marketing Ltd. Using water sustainably is essential to the future of the business as well as the environment and community.

 The company works together with the Coca-Cola Company to implement a sustainable water stewardship strategy. Its approach is designed to protect, reduce and replenish water that touches every aspect of the company’s operations, both inside and outside its plant.

Protect

The stewardship of water begins at its source, where the company has put together a series of carefully tailored plans to protect the water it uses. GSD has two water sources, the government’s main water supply system and registered metered boreholes.

The company has a bespoke ‘source vulnerability assessment’, which assesses potential future risks to water quality and availability – both for its manufacturing and the wider watershed the water comes from. To this effect, it constantly monitors its borehole water extraction to ensure sustainable use of this water source. Its protection plans are reviewed regularly and updated as necessary because of this.

Reduce

GSD is always looking to reduce the amount of water it uses in manufacturing its drinks. As such, it has systems in place to measure the water usage and identify ways to reduce this.

GSD is always looking to reduce the amount of water it uses in manufacturing its drinks

Over the past years, the company has successfully implemented process improvements which have resulted in an annual reduction of 31,000 cubic metres of water. Over the past few years, it has, in fact, reduced its water use ratio by over eight per cent. This is an ongoing process, and the company will continue investing in innovative ways in order to reduce its water usage.

Replenish

Together with The Coca-Cola Company and with the support of The Coca-Cola Foundation, GSD has designed a holistic sustainability programme for water, namely Alter Aqua, which is implemented in the country by the NGO Global Water Partnership Mediterranean in collaboration with the Energy and Water Agency.

Since its launch in 2001, the programme has implemented 16 infrastructural projects, ranging from the installation of rainwater harvesting systems to the introduction of the grey water reuse systems, the implementation of a storm water management application and the restoration of water reservoirs.

In 2021, Alter Aqua Phase 3 was launched, with the aim of restoring three water reservoirs in Kalkara and a reservoir at Rinella. The reservoirs in Kalkara have been restored at the end of 2020 and will be used for the irrigation of a garden being rehabilitated through national funds. The reservoir at Rinella will be used for irrigation of trees and other landscaping activities around the Rinella fort.

Another historical water reservoir in Vittoriosa has been identified and will be restored by the end of this year.

Alter Aqua goes beyond infrastructural projects by also focusing on educational campaigns aimed at raising awareness on the application of non-conventional water resources and sustainable water use in our schools.

The programme’s activities were implemented in collaboration with the Ekoskola Programme. Since 2011, 15,060 students were educated on sustainable development in schools and 1,380 teachers have been trained through this educational programme.

This project has positively impacted the lives of around 15 per cent of the Maltese population by collecting and reusing close to 18 million litres of water on an annual basis – an equivalent of the monthly consumption of water for over 1,000 families in Malta.