TOUR: MillerCoors Plant

January 5, 2013

Photo from MillerCoors

At the MillerCoors Plant, we met Rashad Alston, the Trade Quality Specialist, and Lairy Johnson, the Environmental and Sustainability Engineer.  MillerCoors has incorporated many sustainability measures in their business model and plant operations.  Although their sustainability focus began about 10 years ago, only about one year ago, their corporate officials placed a directive on all areas of the company to reduce energy and water consumption by 6% every year, which is something unheard of in this industry considering the high consumption in the brewing process.  After just a short period, however, the Fort Worth brewery became the second best in the company in energy use.  This is pretty amazing when considering the fact that the plant was built in 1964 and houses equipment just as old.  Rashad and Larry indicated that the workers there are very proud of their work and the MillerCoors company, and they are always challenging themselves to do better, even in the world of sustainability.
 

As we went through the brewery, Rashad and Larry explained in great detail all the inner workings of the beer-making process.  Some interesting sustainability features to note include waste diversion efforts.  Larry had stated that four of the eight MillerCoors breweries in the country are zero-waste to the landfill.  The Fort Worth plant is at 99.996% waste diversion (they are not at 100% only because they cannot burn industrial, non-hazard waste which would have to be shipped on trucks out of the area if they wanted to recycle it).  Approximately 94% of their waste is the residual grain, which they sell to dairy farmers to feed their cows.  They also reminded us that all the packaging used for the beer is recyclable.

Photo from MillerCoors

Water is a major issue for breweries, both in the beverage and also the waste water created in the process of making the beer.  In 2011, the Fort Worth plant was able to achieve a water-to-beer ratio of 3.53:1, the best in the company at the time, when the other major breweries in the company average a 4.07:1 ratio.  Much water used to be lost, as well, in the brewing process.  They installed a water capture system which reclaims the hot water.  Although about 10-12% of the water used is lost to due evaporation, the remaining is captured and reused for cleaning and restroom use.  They also create biogas from wastewater and use this biogas instead of fossil fuels to generate electricity and to power their boilers.






The process of brewing beer also creates a lot of carbon dioxide.  The Fort Worth plant has set up a capturing system for this and reuses it in their bottling of the beer.

MillerCoors has also created many programs to encourage a sense of community and social responsibility.  One project, Water As A Crop, is focused on implementing conservation methods on private lands along the Trinity River (the Fort Worth brewery retreives water from many places in the area, including the Trinity River).  Their goal is to protect and restore watersheds on these private lands.  MillerCoors provides much support to the farmers and ranchers here for the cost to implement the conservation practices that will better manage water runoff, improve water quality, and increase the economic well-being of the farms.  One such example was the brewer's support to a local farmer to plant native grasses in buffer zones along his creek.  Once these native grasses took hold, the creek level started to rise, and so it improved the grazing.

MillerCoors, and the Fort Worth brewery in particular, has set a major example not just in the beverage industry, but for all companies looking to operate in a more sustainable and efficient way.