Nestlé To Draw Power From 100 Percent Renewable Resources At Sacramento Water-Bottling Plant

A water-bottling plant in Sacramento is going green. As of mid-May, Nestlé Water North America will begin drawing all of its power from renewable sources at its Sacramento location.

Damien Waples, the Sacramento Municipal Utilities Distirct manager on the Nestlé account, says the project is like removing “1,300 passenger vehicles off the road per year. It's the equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions from that."

The partnership is part of a pilot program with SMUD, using a mixture of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric power.

“It's become so economically efficient to do it as well. I love when things make business sense at the same time as making environmental and social sense,” said Nelson Switzer, with Nestlé.

He added the project should save the company $1.4 million in energy costs over the next two decades.

The Large Commercial SolarShares program is closed, but SMUD is re-evaluating rebooting it later this year.

Nestlé's received flack over bottling Sacramento water during the drought and then selling it back to consumers for a profit. The company buys the resource for about a dollar per 100 cubic feet of water, which SMUD says is standard businesses.