Since 2007, the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) has conducted an annual quantitative benchmark to examine water use in the beverage sector. 2012 marks the completion of its sixth annual water use benchmarking study that evaluates the performance of more than 1,600 beverage manufacturing facilities distributed across 6 continents and representing 17 different beverage companies. The study seeks to more clearly understand water use drivers and impacts and to demonstrate improvement as an industry in water stewardship efforts.

To establish the data set, BIER member companies provided three years (2009, 2010, 2011) of facility-specific metrics including total water usage, total beverage production, beverage product mix, facility type and facility location. The basis for analysis is the water use ratio, which describes how efficiently a facility uses water for beverage production. Results are categorized by four distinct facility types: bottling, brewery, distillery and winery. The 2012 study identified an overall improvement in industry-wide water use ratio, with approximately 73% of facilities realizing improved water use ratios from 2009 to 2011. Additionally, BIER member companies demonstrated significant water use improvements in water scarce operations and areas that are forecasted to be more water-stressed in the near future.

This is the third year that BIER membership has elected to share select results of this study with external stakeholders in support of transparency and open communication around environmental sustainability performance. BIER plans to begin its seventh annual benchmarking study in June 2013 with a focus on building more context-based metrics into the study to further evaluate process drivers for water use trends.