This week,
MillerCoors, a joint venture between
SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company, released its corporate social responsibility (CSR)
report, which discusses how
water efficiency is a huge focus for the beer brewing company’s long term
sustainability and strategy agendas.
Just for a quick review, the company’s water stewardship strategy has five main pillars:
1. Increasing
water efficiency, as measured by the amount of water required to produce a barrel of beer. Currently that ratio is down to 4.1 to 1, and three of its eight large US breweries met or are near the company’s 2015 water target ratio of 3.5 to 1.
2. Implementing strong environmental management systems and minimizing the impacts from its breweries, such as wastewater effluent.
3. Assessing the watersheds for its breweries, as this has a huge impact on local stakeholder engagement.
4. Understanding its water “footprint” -- how, when, and where water is used throughout the company’s business and supply chain.
5. Directing and supporting community investments with others toward water stewardship.
Some ways in which MillerCoors is focusing on water efficiency is through:
o Reusing pasteurizer water, which could save up to 200 million gallons of water annually at a Milwaukee brewery
(pictured above left, click to expand).
o Using ionic air rinser technology to clean new aluminum cans prior to filling them with beer rather than using water. The ionized air neutralizes the charge on the cans as they pass through the rinser, which causes any dust particles to drop off.
o Expanding the use of non-water lubricant on packaging lines to help all those bottles and cans slide down those long conveyor belts.
Here is what one executive has to say:
“Water is a top priority for MillerCoors business, and we’re taking the steps now to manage water efficiently within our brewery operations, with our suppliers and throughout the entire agricultural supply chain to ensure we have access to it in the future,” said MillerCoors Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Kim Marotta. “It’s incredibly important to our business -- beer begins and ends with water.”
Again, you can review the report
here.
About The Author
Leon Kaye
Leon Kaye is the founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com and its advisory division,
GGP Media.
Contact him to discuss how he can work with your organization or event.
His focus is making the business case for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
He writes for San Francisco-based
Triple Pundit,
Inhabitat and now
The Guardian, for which he writes about corporate responsibility, water, and green building. He has also written for AIA's
Architect Magazine.
Leon works out of Fresno and Silicon Valley, California, and when he has free time, he enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, weightlifting, and planning his next trip to one of the 60 countries he has visited. He has an MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business and is also a proud graduate of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) and Cal State-Fresno.
This week, MillerCoors, a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company, released its corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, which discusses how water efficiency is a huge focus for the beer brewing company’s long term sustainability and strategy agendas.
Just for a quick review, the company’s water stewardship strategy has five main pillars:
1. Increasing water efficiency, as measured by the amount of water required to produce a barrel of beer. Currently that ratio is down to 4.1 to 1, and three of its eight large US breweries met or are near the company’s 2015 water target ratio of 3.5 to 1.
2. Implementing strong environmental management systems and minimizing the impacts from its breweries, such as wastewater effluent.
3. Assessing the watersheds for its breweries, as this has a huge impact on local stakeholder engagement.
4. Understanding its water “footprint” -- how, when, and where water is used throughout the company’s business and supply chain.
5. Directing and supporting community investments with others toward water stewardship.
Some ways in which MillerCoors is focusing on water efficiency is through:
o Reusing pasteurizer water, which could save up to 200 million gallons of water annually at a Milwaukee brewery (pictured above left, click to expand).
o Using ionic air rinser technology to clean new aluminum cans prior to filling them with beer rather than using water. The ionized air neutralizes the charge on the cans as they pass through the rinser, which causes any dust particles to drop off.
o Expanding the use of non-water lubricant on packaging lines to help all those bottles and cans slide down those long conveyor belts.
Here is what one executive has to say:
“Water is a top priority for MillerCoors business, and we’re taking the steps now to manage water efficiently within our brewery operations, with our suppliers and throughout the entire agricultural supply chain to ensure we have access to it in the future,” said MillerCoors Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Kim Marotta. “It’s incredibly important to our business -- beer begins and ends with water.”
Again, you can review the report here.
