 Nutrient-rich leftover water from the Anheuser-Busch brewing process in it Fort Collins, Colo., USA brewery is being applied to camelina crops at the company’s Nutri-Turf farm nearby. • Fuel: Anheuser-Busch’s Bio-Energy Recovery Systems (BERS) is a method of pre-treating brewing-related wastewater anaerobically and capturing biogas, methane, from it before it goes into the local sewer system. The recovered methane is burned for fuel, providing 10 to 15 percent more of the on-site fuel needs for nine of the company’s 12 US breweries and one of its breweries overseas, explains John Stier, group director, environmental assurance and development for Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Mo., USA. “It’s a great story to not have to use and purchase so much fossil fuel and be able to do it with a renewable source from a product that we are using many times over,” says Stier. Water also is reused for irrigation purposes. A-B’s Fort Collins, Colo., USA brewery is working with Colorado State University to grow bio-fuel crops at its Nutri-Turf farm and is testing which crops work best as a reliable fuel source. • Energy: Blake Mackey, director of climate change and strategic sustainability at Domani, a consulting and management firm that assists companies in developing sustainability strategies, says one major way to become sustainable is through renewable energy usage. By purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates, for example, companies have the opportunity to buy energy from a source like a wind farm, even if there isn’t one in their state.
“This is one way to support renewable energy even if the opportunity for the energy to actually be produced isn’t available by your utility,” says Mackey. With offices in New York City, Chicago and Denver, Domani has worked with international companies including The Coca-Cola Company. • Lighting: At Coca-Cola Enterprises, Atlanta, Ga., USA, the world’s largest Coke bottler, sustainability has been a “hot button” issue, says Fred Roselli, manager of public affairs and external communications. Over the past year, the company has introduced industrial and high-bay fluorescent lighting into its production facilities replacing regular high intensity discharge (HID) lighting. “Our goal is to replace all HID lighting in our US facilities with high-bay fluorescent lights by 2009,” says Roselli. The changeover will reduce the company’s energy consumption for lighting by about 50 percent, saving approximately 137,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year. • Water: At Constellation Wines US’ Turner Vintners facility in Lodi, Calif., USA, wastewater is being recycled through a system of constructed wetlands. Microorganisms living in the wetlands digest waste in the water, leaving it cleansed and ready for reuse by the facility. “Wetlands have not been very well understood by people in the US and 50 percent of them are gone, and here in California, 90 percent of them are gone,” says Mark Gabrielli, Turner Road’s general manager. • Waste: By exhausting local resources, many waste items—or example spent grain in the case of Standing Stone Brewing Co.’s production--can be reused. President Alex Amarotico reports that about 800 pounds of spent grain a week is reused as feed supplements by a local farmer. Another local farmer reuses the brewery’s leftover yeast and hops for his composting needs. “All of the products that go into the brewery are used somewhere else when we are done with them,” says Amarotico. From Beverage World October 15, 2007 |
