Anheuser-Busch commits to water conservation goals

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

You can’t make beer without water, but you can be a better steward of the water you use. To that end, Belgian-Brazilian brewing conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev has pledged to improve water usage efficiency, use circular recycling in its packaging, reduce carbon emissions and encourage smart agriculture practices in the coming years.

The Budweiser brewery in Baldwinsville is taking part in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s 2025 U.S. Sustainability Goals by pledging to cut water usage by 10 percent in 2018.

“From seed to sip, water is essential to all the great-tasting beers brewed locally in Baldwinsville, and to all the communities where we live and work,” said Katja Zastrow, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility-Better World, Anheuser-Busch. “That’s why across our business, we’re passionate about searching for innovative new ways to conserve water, as part of our efforts to build a better world.”

On March 22 — World Water Day — Anheuser-Busch announced a worldwide competition among its breweries to come up with innovative ideas for sustainable water use. The winning facility will receive $100,000 to make its idea a reality.

Bryan Sullivan, general manager of the Baldwinsville brewery, said those ideas range from using different nozzles to improve efficiency during tank transfers to improvements in the cleaning and pasteurization processes.

“It encourages a lot of good, healthy competition internally,” Sullivan said.

One of 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the United States — and the largest brewery in New York state — the Baldwinsville facility produces about 70 brands of beverages, compared to the average 10 to 20 brands other Anheuser-Busch facilities produce.

Baldwinsville has emerged as a leader in introducing Anheuser-Busch innovations. Anheuser-Busch has poured $75 million into the local brewery since 2011 and launched its Bud Light Lime-A-Rita cocktails from B’ville in 2012. Baldwinsville began bottling non-alcoholic Teavana products in December 2016 under an agreement with Starbucks, and the brewery has been churning out SpikedSeltzer for about a year.

Now that the World Water Day competition is underway, Sullivan said Baldwinsville is focusing on improving its sustainability practices. He said Baldwinsville uses 3.1 to 3.2 barrels of water for every barrel of product that comes out of the brewery.

“Our breweries in Fairfield, California, and Cartersville, Georgia, are the best in the system,” he said of B’ville’s fellow Anheuser-Busch breweries.

The Baldwinsville brewery has been expanding its water metering system over the last few years, Sullivan said. The facility has made improvements to its modulation system, or the controls that secure compressed air, water and electricity when a production line is shut off for maintenance or downtime. B’ville also has been finding alternate uses for “reclaimed water,” or leftover water that has been used in the production process.

“We are aware of where every drop of water is going,” Sullivan said.

Another of Anheuser-Busch’s sustainability goals is to move to 100 percent circular packaging; that is, packaging will be made up of majority recyclable content or will be returnable.

“What we do internally — and we’ve always done this too — [with] anything that’s rejected or non-sellable [is] all recycled,” Sullivan said.

Some of Anheuser-Busch’s initiatives are bigger than Baldwinsville. The company announced in September 2017 that it was partnering with Enel Green Power, an Italian renewable energy corporation, to purchase 152.5 megawatts of energy from EGP’s Thunder Ranch wind farm in Oklahoma.

The EGP deal is a major component of Anheuser-Busch’s 2025 U.S. Sustainability Goals, the first of which is to purchase all energy from renewable sources. As of Earth Day, Anheuser-Busch products will bear a “100% Renewable Electricity” label, and the company expects to fully transition to all-renewable energy by 2020.

Anheuser-Busch’s commitment to sustainability extends to its agricultural operations as well. In 2014, the company launched the SmartBarley 2.0 benchmarking program

“We work with more than 1,000 direct growers in the U.S. for barley, rice and hops and give growers real-time access to weather and water data, and the latest seed research to create varieties that produce the highest quality and best yields, while using less water and fungicides and increasing tolerance to disease, drought, and other extreme weather conditions,” explained Alex Roberts, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson.

While the winning brewery of the World Water Day competition will receive capital improvement money, Sullivan said the employees who develop the most innovative idea will be rewarded both financially and with seeing their idea be implemented across the company.

“It’s the best way to do it, ideas born and raised right here,” Sullivan said. “It gives people a sense of pride in their workspace.”