Fosters Brewery
Fosters believes its Yatala site the most water efficient major brewery in the world – they use just over 2 litres of water for every litre of beer which is less than half the international standard of 5 litres.
Following a $14 million water management project (implemented as part of an expansion) the brewery doubled its brewing capacity, yet only increased its consumption of water by 10-15 percent.
Yatala only uses drinking water in the direct production of its products. Virtually all other processes use recycled water – which is captured and treated on site.
Initiatives that have saved 2500 million litres of water over the last 5 years include:
- Recovering all factory trade waste for treatment and recycling
- Optimising water usage in automated cleaning systems
- Using recycled water for:
- external keg washing
- vacuum pumps
- washdown hoses
- cooling towers and boilers
- toilet and urinal flushing
- Installing waterless urinals where possible
- Installing water efficient showers and flow restrictors on basin taps
Fosters is working on projects that could save up to another 100 million litres a year.