About BIER
First convened in 2006, the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) is a coalition of beverage industry companies and supporting partners that work together on a variety of environmental and stewardship initiatives.
The mission of the roundtable is to define a common framework for stewardship, drive continuous improvement practices and performance, and inform public policy in the areas of Water Conservation and Resource Protection, Energy Efficiency, and Climate Change Mitigation.
BIER has advanced these objectives by developing leadership definitions on water stewardship in the beverage industry, development of best practice guidance tools on drought preparedness and management, facility water use, efficiency and conservation practices, benchmarking water use and efficiency and mapping the state-of-the-science of water footprinting practices.
In July 2008, Tod Christenson of Antea™Group, presented written testimony on behalf of BIER to the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. The testimony presented BIER's recommendations on the following: Role of Federal Government in Water Supply, Water Conservation and Water Management, Priority Needs for Federal Research and Development, and Considerations Moving Forward. BIER’s testimony contributed to the Committee on Science and Technology drafting and approving H.R. 1145, the National Water Research and Development Initiative Act of 2009. The bill addresses the need for a coordinated federal approach to water research and development to help communities that are facing water shortages.
http://gop.science.house.gov/Media/hearings/energy08/july23/christenson.pdf
Recent agendas have focused upon best-practice sharing, benchmarking, developing sector guidance for greenhouse gas and water footprinting, and key stakeholder engagement. The Roundtable is facilitated through two full agenda roundtable meetings per year and the ongoing efforts of topic focused working groups.
Current BIER members include: American Beverage Association, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bacardi Limited, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Brown-Forman Corporation, Carlsberg Group, The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, Diversey, Groupe Danone, Ecolab, Heineken, MillerCoors, Molson Coors Brewing Company, Nestlé Waters, New Belgium Brewing Company, Ocean Spray Cranberries, Pernod Ricard and PepsiCo.
BIER is facilitated by the Global Corporate Consultancy of Antea Group (www.anteagroup.com/gcc).