SABMiller's Miller Brands Ukraine has lowered water use in brewing by 15% since April, part of its sustainability initiative, company says

Nevin Barich

LONDON , January 31, 2012 (press release) – Since the beginning of this fiscal year (April 2011), Miller Brands Ukraine, a SABMiller plc branch, has lowered water use in beer brewing by 15%. Production growth while lowering water use is one of the priorities of the Global Sustainable Development Programme of SABMiller group.

Beer production growth while lowering water use is one of the 10 Sustainable Development Priorities of SABMiller. In 2008, the company set a goal to lower water use by 25% by 2015: from 4.6 hectolitres of water per 1 hectolitre of beer (hl. / hl.) to 3.5 hl. /hl. At this stage, SABMiller managed to lower water consumption by more than 8%: in the fiscal year 2011 (April 1, 2010 - March 31, 2011), more than 150 plants produced about 220 mln hl. of beer, while the average water use remained at the level of 4.2 hl./hl., which is 3% lower than last year.

The SABMiller Sustainable Development Programme is being implemented in the Ukraine branch of the company. For example, since the beginning of the current fiscal year up to the present, Miller Brands Ukraine managed to lower water use by 15%, i.e., bottling department by 36%, brewing room by 23%, filtering room by 37%. At the same time, Miller Brands Ukraine's production volume increased by 51.4% last year and went from 1.08 mln hl. to 1.63 mln hl. of beer (according to the Ukripivo company).

"Water consumption optimization (water is the key component in beer) is one of the key priorities for our company. Nowadays, we try our best at lowering water use while manufacturing beer. For example, in 2011 we started implementing World Class Manufacturing, a cost-efficient manufacturing technology. Among other things, this technology involves lowering costs and saving resources, including water," stated Vassily Basmanov, technical director at Miller Brands Ukraine. "By now we have been able to considerably lower water consumption per beer litre, and we are not going to stop here."

FYI:

SABMiller Sustainable Development Programme

The corporate SABMiller Sustainable Development Programme "Ten Priorities. One Future" is a natural development of the social responsibility strategy for business that the company observes all over the world. Compared to the notion of social responsibility, the notion of sustainable development includes a wider scope of issues and is meant for achieving long-term results.

Of the whole spectrum of social, ecological and economic problems, we chose 10 urgent ones.

10 Sustainable Development Priorities of SABMiller plc:

1. Prevention of alcoholism.

2. Increasing beer production while lowering water use.

3. Lowering power consumption and carbon dioxide emission.

4. Recycling of packages and waste.

5. Waste-free production.

6. Development of the shipment system reflecting the values of the company and its dedication to sustainable development.

7. Benefits for the communities that the company works for.

8. Participation in the war against the spread of HIV/AIDS.

9. Respect for human rights.

10. Business transparency and ethics.

More detailed information on the SABMiller Sustainable Development Programme "Ten Priorities. One Future" is available at the following link: http://www.sabmiller.com/index.asp?pageid=4.

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