Water

NORMA Group’s products provide water management solutions

According to the THE WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE (WRI), a quarter of the world’s population lives in countries facing extremely high water shortages, where more than 80% of the available supply is withdrawn every year by irrigated agriculture, industries and municipalities alone. At the same time global water demand will increase by about 55% as water use increases, especially in manufacturing (+400%) but also in domestic use (+130%) OECD. At the same time, heavy rainfall and storm water events are increasing worldwide, which can overwhelm local sewage systems, affecting water quality and causing enormous damage to homes and key infrastructure. NORMA Group recognized these developments at an early stage and has made establishing a global position in water management a strategic priority. Most predominantly, NORMA Group’s water management product offering includes drip irrigation systems that reduce water consumption significantly compared to sprinkler irrigation and hand watering, as well as rainwater management solutions designed to protect properties from water damage and increasingly ensure that rain and stormwater runoff is used sustainably.

NORMA Group’s water management business is managed in its global “Water Management” business unit. It currently comprises NORMA Group’s US subsidiary NDS and growing organizations in the Asia-Pacific region. The regional businesses collaborate on global initiatives and are coordinated by the president for Water Management and his team. The strategy and organization for Water Management were further strengthened.

Substantial investments were made in operations and in the areas of digitalization and new product development to support the global growth targets. With the opening of the plant in Lithia Springs in the US state of Georgia in May, production capacities for Water Management were also expanded. The acquisition of Teco Srl announced in December 2023 marks the next step for the European water business. NORMA Group intends to build on this success and push ahead with the further expansion of its activities in the EMEA region.

Water consumption in production

With its worldwide presence, NORMA Group is also represented in regions with a medium to high risk of water scarcity (according to the AQUEDUCT METHODOLOGY). Against this backdrop, NORMA Group also has a special responsibility to handle this resource carefully in its own production.

For years, NORMA Group has been working to continuously reduce the use of water in its own production processes. In its environmental strategy, NORMA Group addresses both the water consumption at its manufacturing sites and along the value chain. For our own locations, NORMA has set the target of a reduction of water consumption of 139,7 liter per TEUR sales. CR TARGETS

NORMA Group focuses on its manufacturing sites as a framework for data collection and targets because water consumption at its administrative and distribution sites plays only a minor role due to significantly lower consumption levels. The control of water consumption follows the structure and responsibilities of the ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS.

The water that NORMA Group consumes is used to a large extent for cooling processes within production. In 2023, the water consumption of NORMA Group’s production totaled 171,943 cubic meters. This translates into an 5.0% increase in water consumption compared to the previous year (2022: 163,680 cubic meters). Specific water consumption also increased by 6.0% to 139.6 liters per EUR thousand of revenue (2022: 131.6 liters per EUR thousand of revenue). In the reporting year, specific measures were implemented to reduce water consumption,

like the installation of water meters to monitor water consumption and modifications to certain production machines to reduce water consumption.

The implementation of ISO 14001 at NORMA Group also covers the handling of wastewater. The vast majority of wastewater at NORMA Group sites is discharged to municipal wastewater systems or local sewage treatment plants.

1_In 2020, the acquired entities Kimplas Piping Systems Ltd. and Statek Stanzereitechnik GmbH were integrated into NORMA Group’s environmental reporting. In order to ensure comparability with previous years, historic water consumption data was updated back to the time of acquisition in 2018. Detailed information may be found in the data chapter on page 102.