Water

Our commitment to reducing environmental impact includes being a good steward of a vital resource we all rely on – water. Accordingly, while our operations are not significantly water intensive, we make efforts to manage our water use, and simultaneously consider our indirect water consumption, including by helping our customers reduce their water use.

Managing Our Water Use and Addressing Water Risk

We understand the challenges that some communities across the globe face regarding water scarcity. To help ensure we are not contributing to the issue, we work to conserve water and to use it efficiently in our facilities.

In 2018, we began a process led by the corporate center to collect and aggregate water data at the facility level. Since 2018, we have improved water data collection to now calculate or estimate water data for 96% of all facilities, an increase compared to 94% in 2019. Therefore, water withdrawal volumes are monitored and directly measured or estimated at substantially all our facilities worldwide. We plan to continue to improve our data collection and reporting methodology and report annually to the CDP Water Security program. See our Reports and Disclosures page for our latest CDP Water response and score report.

Since our full water baseline was established in 2019, our water consumption has decreased 16% and water withdrawal has decreased 14%. Although the number of facilities in our operations increased in 2020, reduced water withdrawal is attributed to COVID-related operational disruptions. In the future, we expect total water withdrawals to increase in some operating companies as our operations continue to grow.

Because water is necessary to operate our facilities and demand for water exceeds supply in some parts of the world, we are developing our understanding of the business risks associated with water. We have begun to assess risks related to water scarcity, water quality, current and future regulations that could affect the availability and pricing of water, and potential reputational concerns arising in connection with our water use and management using the World Resources Institute Aqueduct tool. In 2019 using this tool, we determined that 12% of Dover's facilities are located in areas considered to be in high or extremely high 'overall water stress.’ As with other sustainability-related risks, water risks are evaluated and integrated into our broader company-wide oversight of risk management as needed and are addressed in part by our ongoing conservation efforts. These include conservation efforts at a number of our operating companies which set goals for water efficiency as part of their ISO 14001 certifications.

Managing water at operating companies through ISO 14001

A number of our operating companies are certified to ISO 14001, which requires setting goals for resource efficiency, including water. Markem-Imaje has an objective to reduce water consumption through innovative recycling processes applied along its manufacturing process. As a result, Markem-Imaje has reduced water consumption by 68% based on production activity (tonnage shipped) from 2010. Read more in their whitepaper “Exploring how sustainable development can be good for business”.

Reducing Water Use Through Product Innovation

We also consider water-related risks from a broader value chain perspective, particularly the value we can bring by developing products and solutions that help our customers use water more efficiently and reduce their water footprint. As an industrial manufacturer and developer of equipment and solutions for many diverse markets, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunity to help our customers address their water-related risks and goals.

An example of this innovation at work is MS Printing Solutions, part of Dover Digital Printing, which developed and offers the LaRio high speed single-pass digital textile printer. Described as any ink jet-based method of printing colorants onto fabric, digital textile printing simultaneously improves environmental sustainability and business profitability. Significantly, compared to traditional fabric printing methods, digital textile printing requires less water because fabric washing is minimal and there are no screens or printing rolls to clean. The process also reduces dye and chemical waste and lowers energy consumption. This digital green technology helps shorten textile printing production times from as much as 40 days for 30,000 linear meters to less than 12 hours which translates to improving production from 100 linear meters per hour to 75 linear meters per minute.

Product Innovation Spotlight: MS LaRio digital textile “dry printing” reduces water usage

MS Printing Solutions participates in the “Sustainable Technologies” project sponsored by the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT). The LaRio single-pass digital textile printer is Green Certified by ACIMIT with water use of only 2.67 L/kg of processed material – over 90% less than the 100 L/kg in traditional textile finishing. MS Printing also launched the #transparentaswater initiative to demonstrate its commitment to water conservation.

Dover believes that sustainability-driven innovation presents a significant growth opportunity while contributing positively to enhanced resource efficiency. For more information on our innovative and sustainable products and solutions, please visit our Innovation for Sustainable Products webpage.