Carlsberg promises to halve water consumption in sustainability pledge.
Carlsberg has announced that they will halve the amount of water they use in their beer in the name of sustainability.
The brewery group has invested in an initiative that will allow them to recycle 90 per cent of all process water and halve water usage at its brewery in Fredericia, Denmark, while reducing energy consumption by 10 per cent.
The Fredericia brewery plant will reduce average water consumption at the brewery from the current 2.9 hl of water per hl of beer to 1.4 hl of water per hl of beer, which will make it the first brewery to virtually eliminate water waste. When the plant first opened in 1979 it operated a 4:1 beer to water ratio.
“This is a big investment for us, but also a necessary next step on our journey towards ZERO water waste across all our breweries. By recycling 90% of all process water, the Fredericia brewery will halve its current average water consumption for brewing beer, taking it below our 2030 target,” says Philip Hodges, EVP, Integrated Supply Chain, Carlsberg Group.
The recycling plant is a partnership project initiated through the public-private partnership DRIP (the Danish partnership for Resource and water-efficient Industrial food Production). The initiative meets Denmark’s high food and environment standards by involving universities and technology providers, and also the Danish veterinary, environment and food authorities.
Søren Nøhr Bak, Expertise Director at technical consultancy company Niras, says: “The total water recycling plant at Carlsberg’s brewery represents a new innovative approach to safe reuse of rinsed process water, and the project introduces new technologies to improve water efficiency, building on the long-standing tradition of cooperation with Danish environment and food safety authorities as well as leading Danish universities.”
The new recycling plant will help Carlsberg achieve their sustainability programme ‘Together Towards ZERO’ where they have committed to move towards zero carbon emissions and zero water waste at all of their breweries.
1 October 2019
Climate Action
