Water care award, winner: SABMiller.
SABMiller wants to produce beer in a waterneutral fashion — pretty ambitious when you are dealing with crops, bottlewashing and brewing.
On average SABMiller’s breweries use between 3.8 litres and four litres of water for one litre of beer, but SAB is aiming to use as little water as possible because South Africa is classified as water-stressed.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), SAB and the government’s Working for Water (WfW) programme launched what is believed to be the world’s first fully quantified waterneutral scheme last year.
SAB reduces water consumption and offsets the residual by investing in projects that clear alien vegetation. This, in turn, releases equivalent volumes of water back into the environment.
Invasive alien plants displace indigenous vegetation and alter the functioning of the ecosystem. Aliens use about 7% of the mean annual run-off (MAR) a year (the equivalent to some 3 300-million cubic meters), intensify flooding and fires and cause erosion and siltation of dams and estuaries.
The judges said that SABMiller deserved a commendation because it has been working on water issues for a long time — and SABMiller is a founding signatory of the United Nations’ CEO Water Mandate.
Globally SABMiller plc, and at the local level SAB, has an environmental policy endorsed by the most senior management teams. At a global group level there is a corporate accountability and risk assessment committee (Carac), which is replicated in each of the geographical/regional hubs, including South Africa.
The local Carac is a heavyweight group comprising the SABMiller group chief executive, SABMiller group chairperson, SAB managing director, SAB corporate affairs director and SAB manufacturing director.
‘Water is one of our top three global environmental priorities,” Edna Sathekga, sustainability manager at SAB, said. ‘We recognise our duty to promote responsible water use throughout our operations and to encourage our suppliers to do the same.”
Within the ambit of water management, SAB is quantifying the water footprint of beer on farms. The company is working with barley farmers to improve irrigation and yields and, in partnership with the WWF, SAB is now considering how to protect the watersheds within which it operates.
SAB has its own hops production company, the South African Breweries Breweries Hop Farms in George, which saves SAB approximately R50-million in foreign exchange by supplying up to 95% of SAB’s requirements.
The company’s hop farms use permanent irrigation systems and draw water from farm dams filled from boreholes and rivers when water is available. In terms of water saving, a neutron probe measures the field capacity and wilting point of the crop to assess water availability. By taking readings three times a week, operators can determine how much water is needed to maintain the correct balance at any time.
SAB uses waste water to generate energy and produce fertiliser. ‘Water footprinting enables us to understand which parts of our supply chain might face water scarcity or poor water quality in the future and means that we can plan now to deal with these challenges,” Sathekga said.
SAB is trying to understand the watersheds within which breweries and bottling plants operate. Internationally, SABMiller has undertaken watershed mapping in approximately 30 sites. In the past two years the company has introduced reporting measures developed by SABMiller.
SAB has completed a detailed value chain water footprinting exercise in South Africa. At brewery level SAB saves (controls leaks and uses less) and recycles water. Water is used a second time for non-product tasks such as floor washing.
At one brewery 2 000 hectolitres of water a day have been saved by using the final rinse water from a bottle washer for washing crates and cleaning floors. Investigation is under way into using treated waste water to irrigate the breweries’ grounds. SAB recycles and redistributes
water within local communities.
‘We either provide them with clean water through community investment programmes or treat waste water so it can be used for irrigation,” Sathekga said.
How is the water cleaned? SAB has installed eco-friendly anaerobic digester treatment plants, which treat effluent, at five of its seven breweries to reduce water pollution.
SAB works with the government, too. For example, in its areas of operation it cooperates with catchment management agencies to map out future water demand and availability.
Catchment management agencies are an initiative of the department of water affairs and forestry. SAB also built a water treatment plant for the Polokwane municipality more than 20 years ago.
In the past year SAB conducted a watershed mapping project in partnership with Coca-Cola to research long-term water supply viability and availability for the Devland and Midrand plants. That exercise has led to a greater understanding of the potential risks of water supply constraints on business and the impact of infrastructure and supply chain issues on business continuity. That’s worth drinking to. Cheers!