The Guide provides easy-to-follow processes, as well as important considerations when pivoting focus from on-site techniques to off-site circularity endeavors.
The Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable
(BIER) has developed a handbook for beverage companies aiming to embed water
circularity as part of their water strategy, at the basin scale.
The Water Circularity Good Practices Guide
seeks to outline the how-to of successful pre-project planning and concrete
steps for successful implementation, as well as considerations that should be
made after projects have been implemented to ensure long-term success. The Guide
addresses the emerging need for an easy-to-follow process that also incorporates
important considerations when pivoting focus from on-site techniques to off-site
circularity endeavors.
With the recognition that businesses and communities will need circularity
initiatives to thrive, the Water Circularity Good Practices Guide presents the
BRAID Work Stream (Benchmarking, Relationships, Accountability,
Intertwined, Dynamic) — intended to coordinate the complexity of
solutions, strategies and tailored outreach materials necessary to design and
deliver impactful and sustainable watershed-level outcomes. The BRAID Work
Stream is intended to help companies keep a pulse on engagement and operations
simultaneously, allowing them to remain nimble and adaptable — ensuring
continuous support by building public confidence in circular water reuse
strategies.
“This guide seeks to coalesce insights already developed by BIER and other
leaders in the fields of water stewardship and circularity with the
ever-important and necessary consideration of appropriate stakeholders,” says
BIER Executive Director Daniel
Pierce. “We at BIER hope this
guide can serve as an approachable and usable document to better prepare you and
your organization for the task ahead — socializing water-circularity
opportunities, particularly those off-site, to reduce our reliance on freshwater
resources and improve the health of our watersheds.”
A New Era for Brand Integrity: Navigating the Greenhush-Greenwash Spectrum
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The Guide shares case examples of strategies by beverage industry giants
including:
AB InBev (off-site)
AB InBev has been working in the water-recycling
space for some time with a universal, long-term goal that each local solution
must have a net-positive impact. AB InBev’s approach to water reuse begins
internally — with the identification of systems where treated, reused water can
be integrated in the processes where the water is consumed (except water going
into the product or in direct contact with the product), reducing drawdown of
freshwater. Once water leaves the facility, locally specific, end-use
destinations are identified to ensure that this treated water had a second,
beneficial use. Example off-site solutions include:
-
Effluent is used externally by local firefighters
-
Irrigation support for municipal government (public lands, parks, etc)
-
Road maintenance
Constellation Brands (on-site)
Constellation Brands (CBI) has been operating in
Mexico for 10 years — a highly water-stressed region where water resources
must be thoughtfully
managed.
CBI is making strides to improve water-use efficiency, initiating actions to
promote better water management within the watershed, and reducing total water
withdrawals. Initiatives include:
-
Developing a wastewater reuse partnership with other regional stakeholders
-
Utilizing on-site treatment of wastewater to integrate treated water into
production processes that do not have direct contact with the product
-
Partnerships with agricultural industry
-
Sharing water risks
-
Investing in agricultural infrastructure (modernizing dams, pumping
stations) to help reduce water loss and increase water conduction.
PepsiCo (off-site)
At a foods-manufacturing facility, also in Mexico,
PepsiCo set an ambitious target to achieve
freshwater usage efficiency of 0.4 L/kg by 2030. To reach this goal, the company
developed a water-reuse strategy that included:
-
Tracking water pathways, to identify where changes could be made
-
Identifying and working with a third-party water supplier that sourced
process water from local food companies for further treatment and
incorporation midstream, to reduce total freshwater drawdown.
The new process enabled the facility to go 90 days without the introduction of
freshwater water into the process — creating the company’s first truly circular
water
system;
it achieved an efficiency of 0.16 L/kg. The goal is to require zero freshwater
consumption altogether for an entire year. If the facility can accomplish that,
the Vallejo facility would save approximately 550 million liters of water
per year.
Takeaway advice from each case echoed many of the same principles: Start
locally, and become familiar with local regulations on use of reclaimed water;
then, replicate regionally and ultimately up to global scale. Ensure the quality
of water (and ecosystem) the local community relies on is not impacted.
Understand all the actors and interested parties within your watershed —
stakeholder mapping is imperative; and you need community engagement to be
successful. Companies must do their due diligence on environmental impacts
(downstream and cascading); success comes from taking a holistic approach to
wastewater reuse. Increase awareness internally to identify usage opportunities
where freshwater reliance can be reduced or avoided.
Expanding context-based decisions to include local perspectives and needs — as
well as how these aspects change over the life of a project — is instrumental in
creating a shared language around, shared ownership of, and a deep commitment to
circular solutions.
Published Jan 24, 2023 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET
Sustainable Brands Staff