Alcohol brands in India are now making zero-carbon beer and recycling water

As bars across the country change menus to include zero-waste cocktails, big breweries and distilleries are also looking to rewrite their scripts.

Around the world, the spirits industry has set in motion multi-pronged plans to address its soil, water and energy footprints. As countries set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, spirits makers across India, such as Bacardi, Bira91, Pernod Ricard, Piccadily Distillery, and Anheuser Busch InBev, are stepping back and analyzing ways they can achieve carbon neutrality. The half-decade mark.

For New Delhi-based popular beer brand Bira91, started in 2015, Mission to Zero is their climate action blueprint that aims to green all its facilities within a decade of its inception.

Its Net Zero project has been launchedOn Earth Day (April 22) 2022, along with Japan’s Kirin Holdings, it laid out a road map to become carbon neutral by 2025, nearly five years ahead of other global beer makers. It also transitions to 100% clean energy with a target of 10 MW of solar power over the next three years.

The brand currently uses zero coal across its breweries in Mysuru, Kovur in Andhra Pradesh, Nagpur in Maharashtra, Odisha and Maksi, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Its Mysuru brewery reaches net carbon neutrality by 2022 Installation of off-grid wind turbines is also underway to harness all its benefits

Ankur Jain, Founder and CEO, Bira 91, explained, “Consumers today don’t just want to drink great tasting beer, they want to make better choices for the community and the planet. We believe that carbon emissions are the biggest challenge of this generation and we are hopeful that our initiative will lead to a revolution where every beer brewed in the country will be carbon neutral.”

The goal specifies a rather ambitious four-pronged plan: to switch to 100% renewable energy, use 60% less energy, use 50% less water and ensure zero-waste to landfill by 2025. When it comes to bottling, 95% of the materials used to make beer are recyclable, and 99% will be recyclable by 2024, while any waste generated in the beer-making process — broken glass, damaged cartons and crushed cans — is recyclable.

All for carbon-neutral beer

For Gurugram-based Piccadilly Industries, known for its single malt senses, and pure cane rum, Camikara stands for indigenous farming methods and a low carbon footprint thanks to renewable fuels. Prabhakaran Singh Hundal, General Manager, Sales and Marketing said, “For the production of the spirit we use barley which is cultivated using an indigenous six-row system, which relies on organic and sustainable principles. Six-row cultivation brings less yield than other cultivation methods but gives a stronger flavor. Our farmers reuse and recycle barley seeds every year, with leftover material from the spirit manufacturing process, reused for cattle feed,” adds Hundal of the brand with distilleries in Indri and Bawal in Haryana and Patiala in Punjab. At United Breweries, headquartered in Bangalore, 19 out of 21 breweries at Nelamangala, Mangalore and Chamundi breweries replace 75% of conventional energy with wind power using only agricultural waste (such as paddy chaff, sawdust, etc.) as solid fuel for boilers.

In terms of water usage, Bira91 is treating 100% of waste-water into pure water which is then used for refrigeration, watering plants and generating steam. Sakshi Saigal of Third Eye Distillery Goa, which produces the popular Stranger & Sons Gin, says conservation is an important aspect of the operation. “To reduce and conserve the amount of water we use to run our 16-hour distillery, we invested in a tank that recycles water. With our chillers and tanks, we are able to save 10,000 liters of water per run. When we drain the water from the chiller, it is directed to our botanical garden.” Nashik’s Sula Vineyards has a rainwater harvesting capacity of 36.8 million liters and 100% of the water is recycled in the vineyards and hospitality centers.

Air to water solution

Bengaluru-based start-up Uravu Labs entered the sustainability space in 2019, developing 100% renewable water infrastructure that uses solar, bioenergy and wind power to generate potable water from moist air. Pradeep Garg, Swapnil Srivastava, Venkatesh R, and Govinda Balaji, Technology Pioneers. The set-up is fairly straight-forward: First, a chemically stable, desiccant solution of calcium chloride and water absorbs moisture from the air that passes over it. The desiccant solution then goes to an absorption facility and finally, a condenser and collection tank yield demineralized, clean, potable water, ideal for use in the Alco-Bev business. Swapnil says, “We have pilot projects underway with Anheuser Busch InBev in Bengaluru (maker of Budweiser, Corona, and Hoegaarden beers) and Radico Khaitan in Himachal Pradesh (maker of Rampur Single Malt and Indian Craft Gin in Jaisalm). We generate water from air, and this process is highly scalable, using a variety of renewable energy sources.” Smaller capacity machines of 20-100 liters per day could see applications in community spaces and apartment buildings, “while industrial applications can produce 10,000 liters per day with set-ups installed on site for brewers or distillers, or they can buy water from us,” he added. do

Other major assets of the Alco-Bev business are bottling and packaging. Sula Vineyards in Nashik, Maharashtra is an applicant member of International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA), a working group of wineries dedicated to reducing the carbon emissions of the wine industry. As part of this policy, it has localized the source of glass bottles for packaging, with 99% of its bottles sourced from local vendors in Maharashtra. For Bacardi India, bottling has been an area of ​​focus as it seeks to reduce last-mile transportation costs.

Zeenah Vilkasim, Marketing Director, Bacardi India said, “According to the Bacardi Cocktail Trends Report 2023 with nine out of 10 (89%) consumers looking to spend more on spirits brands that stand for sustainability, a green revolution in the spirits industry seems to be in the works for India. ” The brand has partnered with a bottle collection agencywhich collects, washes, cleans and de-labels used bottles, so that they can be reused in bottling various local products. “Since inception in 2017, we have collected over 93 million bottles for reuse and over 18 million in FY22. In 2021, we successfully phased out mono cartons (single-use, single-malt whiskey outer branded cardboard packaging) for our brands William Lawson’s and Dewar’s White Label,” adds Gina.

At Piccadilly Industries, barley is cultivated using the indigenous six-row system. Photo credit: Ankit Nandwani

With a global movement underway to reconfigure reusable and biodegradable packaging, Third Eye Distillery has formed strategic partnerships to reduce its packaging footprint. “Our shipping boxes were designed collaborativelyBased in PuneCorugami, which designs packaging from corrugated board. Our recent partnership with EcoSpirits (a closed-loop distribution system) will introduce low-waste, low-carbon spirits packaging technology,” explains Sakshi.

As companies in the spirits sector strive to maximize productivity while minimizing what they extract from the local environment, Hemanta Rao, founder of the Bengaluru-based Single Malt Amateur Club, observes, “There are many ways to reduce the carbon footprint in distilleries and viticulture, from business, to monitoring water usage. Starting with growing crops more consciously, using alternatives to coal, cork stoppers and reusing wooden barrels to mature whiskey. India is following global trends and setting some of its own benchmarks along the way,” says Hemant, who tries to implement green initiatives in his whiskey tasting sessions and uses bottleless packaging for its special edition.