Water Conservation
Water is a key ingredient in beer and vital to life on the planet, which is why Anheuser-Busch is committed to conserving and protecting this precious natural resource from Seed to Sip.
Seed – At our Seed Research Facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, we are working to identify barley seed that can use up to 40% less water for the same yield.
Agriculture – Through our SmartBarley project, we work with barley farmers across the country to help them benchmark their inputs and outputs and improve their performance. We’ve also partnered with the University of Idaho and the Bureau of Reclamation to install 9 Agrimet stations in key barley growing regions in Southern Idaho and Montana. The stations deliver real-time weather data to growers of barley and other crops to help them water smarter. The pilot program helped growers reduce their water use between 9 and 23 percent.
Watershed – Each year our employees in all of our brewery markets as well as several other Anheuser-Busch facility locations join local partners to improve rivers, lakes, and beaches. We remove thousands of pounds of trash and debris, remove invasive species, plant trees and native grasses to improve filtration and run off, and more. Additionally, we’ve partnered with The Nature Conservancy in Fort Collins, CO to help prevent future catastrophic forest fires both by analyzing and implementing a demonstration of forest management practices. We’ve partnered with California Trout to restore hydrological function in the Mammoth Lakes Basin as one of the sources of water that ultimately reaches Los Angeles.
Brewery – We’ve made great strides to reduce our water use in our breweries. Through innovation, technology, and commitment from our employees, we’ve reduced our water use by nearly 50% over the last 10 years at our U.S. breweries.