Water is a key ingredient in the brewing of all our beers and vital to life on the planet, so it’s no surprise that water conservation is a priority at Anheuser-Busch – at our breweries, at our agricultural operations and through employee involvement within our communities.

In March 2010, A-B InBev set a goal to reduce water use for beer and soft drinks to an industry-leading 3.5 hectoliters of water per hectoliter of production.  Our 12 U.S. breweries have reduced water use by 34 percent over the past three years, which has helped  achieve a combined 3.60 hectoliters of water for each hectoliter of production in 2010.  These efforts were highlighted by our Cartersville, Ga. brewery, which has a water use metric of 3.04 hectoliters of water per hectoliter of production, making it the most water-efficient brewery in the entire global company.

Each June, we join A-B InBev’s global celebration of World Environment Day, a day organized by the United Nations to encourage environmental sustainability initiatives.  In recognition of the important role water plays in our business, our 2010 and 2011 World Environment Day programs highlighted water conservation and watershed preservation.

In partnership with River Network, we organized river cleanup projects in our brewery cities, which brought out hundreds of employees and their families for a day of volunteerism.

Guys at Anheuser-Busch pledged to not shave for the two weeks leading up to World Environment Day to show their commitment to saving water as part of the “Grow One. Save a Million.” campaign (the average shave uses 3-10 gallons of water).  In 2011, more than 2,200 Anheuser-Busch employees took the pledge and stopped shaving, helping to save an estimated 160,000 gallons of water.