Robert Cooper
CEO (until 2017)
Dreher Breweries
About 90% of the beer consists of water and almost every tiny step in the brewing process requires water. Think globally, act locally – we follow that in the water issue when we think of scarce, gradually decreasing drinking water, or the responsibility of protecting our natural resources and our ecological system. As a result, we saved 2.2-2.3 million hl of water over the past 4 years and reduced our specific water requirement to 3.2 hl / hl from 4.2 hl / hl over 4 years. These eco-conscious measures did not affect the excellent product quality, but they also meant financial savings, and the motivation and commitment of our factory staff increased
Making more beer of less water
Industry: Food
Date: continuously
Water
Solutions of the macro-sustainability challenges
Improving the efficiency of water distribution and usage
Further targets:
What´s the solution?
We are working towards a resilient world where our business, local communities and ecosystems share uninterrupted access to safe, clean water. At the same time, the beer is approx. 85-90% of water and almost every step of the brewing process requires water. To solve this problem, we are constantly trying to develop technologies with competent experts, either through team programs or with external help, which effectively reduce the amount of water used for brewing, improve water efficiency in our production process. In addition, we constantly monitor the total and the specific water consumption to track progress. Through technological and process improvements and behavioral shaping, we try to improve the efficiency of water use, for which continuous monitoring and approach-shaping is an important tool.
Business connection
Beyond business logic of financial savings by using less water we hope that our local responsibility and actions contribute to building a global system. Although Hungary is rich in water resources, and thus water is a relatively cheap resource, the conservation of natural resources in the long term is a rewarding and lasting advantage for our company, the business sector and Hungary.
Results
The goal of Dreher Breweries is to reduce the amount of water used to produce 1 liter beer to 3 liters by 2020 – while keeping the high quality of beer. Between 2008 and 2015, water consumption was already reduced by 26%, which means that for the production of 1 liter beer needs 3.65 liters of water currently – this data was 4.3 liters in 2008. In just one year, we managed to save 3,000 hectoliters of water together with preserving quality.