Protecting Water for the Next 100+ Years

Water is the most precious shared resource on the planet—yet it remains undervalued, under-protected and often at risk. As brewers, we know the importance of water. More than just a key ingredient in our beer, water is a critical resource for the economic, social and environmental well-being of our communities.

This is why our teams strive every day to improve our water efficiency and stewardship in all the communities where we live and work. We welcome World Water Day each year as an opportunity to call attention to water issues and to catalyze collective solutions with our peers and partners around the world. We are committed to play our part to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 6.

2018 was a defining year in our sustainability journey. Not only did we announce our 2025 Sustainability Goals, including our Water Stewardship goal, but our teams also made real progress against them: 

• We are taking a measurable approach to water stewardship: in 17 countries, we are working to understand the unique factors that affect the health of our high-risk watersheds and creating shared action plans to tackle them. We are holding ourselves accountable for delivering measurable, positive and lasting change.
• We are collaborating more than ever before: last year, we announced global partnerships with @WWF and @TheNatureConservancy to help us identify risk factors, define solutions, and implement change on the ground with our teams. We are excited by the collaboration and progress we are already seeing.
• We continue to improve water efficiencies across our value chain: in the last 5 years, we saved nearly 20 billion liters of water – equivalent to more than 7,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools – in our brewing operations. Last year we reduced our usage by 4.5%, achieving a world-class average usage under 3.0 hl of water for every hl of beer produced.
• We are taking a broader approach to our water footprint: for example, we are working with farmers around the world to improve water efficiency in irrigation, while stepping up our efforts to understand and manage water risk across our full supply chain.

We know there is much more to be done: no company, NGO or government can tackle the global water crisis alone. Together we can and must make a difference, for a better world today and for the next 100+ years to come.