BUDWEISER BREWING GROUP
The goal of its Smart Agriculture Programme is to ensure 100 % of its grain farmers are skilled , connected , and financially empowered by 2025 .
“ Climate change is affecting many of the regions that we work in ; we want to minimise those risks and build resistance through crop management ,” explains Coindreau .
“ We know that , from high-quality crops comes high-quality beer , and so we want to continue working with the same growers . We are taking a farmer-centric approach and supporting sustainable agriculture to help our farmers increase productivity and profitability , and also to efficiently use natural resources , such as soil and water , along the way . It ' s about giving them access to data , to technology , and supporting them throughout the process .”
Another strand to its Smart Agriculture Programme is to use locally grown crops – as BBG currently does in the UK , where in 2020 , all its barley was locally came from British farms .
Water stewardship vital to AB InBev Beer ’ s primary ingredient is of course , water , and on this front , AB InBev ’ s Water Stewardship Programme is vital to its sustainability efforts , because a number of its operations are based in high-water-stress areas , where water availability and quality are issues .
“ Water is not only a critical ingredient to beer , but it ' s also a critical ingredient to economies ,” Coindreau says . “ For humankind , water is one of the basics of wellbeing . Because of this , our challenge is to look beyond our operations and to increase water availability for all the communities with whom we operate .”
He continues : “ Sometimes , this is about helping communities dig wells , or it can be about bringing piped water in from cities . But it is also about reducing the amount of water we use , per beer .”
94 July 2022