ZERO Water Waste

Water is essential to society, and to making beer. However, today it is not managed optimally in too many areas of the world, and water scarcity is a major concern. Our vision for a better tomorrow is a world in which zero water is wasted. Our ambition is 50% reduction in water usage at Carlsberg Group breweries by 2030.

Water is a key ingredient in the brewing process, because 90% of beer consists of water. For that reason, water is among the main priorities of the Sustainable Development Strategy for both Carlsberg Ukraine and Carlsberg Group.

In 2016, Carlsberg Group worked with WWF to identify water risks at the Group’s plants against different indicators of water quantity and quality. Research has shown that in 2017 we are faced with even more ambitious goals as to improving the efficiency of water consumption, through which the company can contribute to meeting the UN’s global SDG targets that aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services around the world by 2030. One of UN’s targets is to reduce the wastage of water that can be utilized and to increase the amount of recycled and treated water.

What we do?

Reduce water consumption

Water is a crucial resource both for our production and for the local communities. For that reason we are constantly looking for ways to reduce its consumption at our production sites. In 2016, the company has consumed ≈ 1.7 billion liters of water in total.

In just a year, we reduced our overall industry water requirement by 6%. We have changed the technology of anaerobic treatment of wastewater and installed a new anaerobic reactor that helped improve the performance of wastewater treatment and boost the capture of the byproduct biogas.

We return water to its natural environment in practically the same state in which we have withdrawn it for internal use

Our plants work using wastewater treatment systems by the German company EnviroChemie, comprising the ASBx vertical anaerobic bioreactor.
The treatment plants include mechanical treatment and separation, chemical deacidification, anaerobic treatment and the final water clarification.
We save water by recycling it for technical needs.