Clattering sounds come from the production line at the Dazhulin Brewery of Chongqing Brewery Company (CBC), where more than 110 thousand products are produced every hour and sold nationwide. As the operating platform of Carlsberg Group in China, Chongqing Brewery is a leading company in water conservation. Thirteen out of the top 20 water-efficient breweries owned by Carlsberg are from Chongqing Brewery, including the top three water-efficient breweries.

Water is an essential component of beer brewing. In beer brewing, water is mainly used for production and domestic usage in the plant. Statistics show that an average of 3.5 hectoliters of water is needed to produce one hectoliter of beer in the brewery industry. However, at the Dazhulin Brewery, a water- conservation benchmark project of CBC, water usage was only 1.65 HL/HL from this January to April.

The reason for this high water usage efficiency lies in the Lighthouse Project launched in 2020. By looking into water usage data, mapping out the pipe network, and detailing it down to each point for water usage, the project has identified the top five water conservation points and 255 measures to reduce water usage.

For example, water left in the concave bottoms of cans is savable. According to Zhang Wei, packaging manager at the Dazhulin Brewery, they found that water is wasted and pollutes the floor when transferred from the sterilization machine to the next process, resulting in several tons of water being used by the sterilization machine.

The brewery solved this by installing an extra air knife at the exit end of the sterilizer. This solution enables water gathered at concave bottoms to be blown backward into the sterilizer, saving 3 milliliters of water from each can. That means 0.006 hectolitres of water can be saved for one hectolitre of beer produced.

This April, CBC released its first ESG report for 2022. The report shows that water usage dropped from 3.87 HL/HL in 2015 to 2.24 HL/HL in 2022, a 42-percent decrease. In 2022, over 2.07 billion liters more water was saved than in 2015, equal to the amount of water in 1,000 standard swimming pools.

CBC is also exploring the use of wastewater. The Dazhulin Brewery, among other breweries, has begun treating reclaimed water and reusing packaging spray water. Wastewater from the beer production process, after multiple filtrations and softening, will be used for things such as greenery, landscaping, floor cleaning, and central air conditioning. The Dazhulin Brewery alone can save 50,000 tons of water per year.

Chongqing Brewery Company is the fourth largest beer company in China. In 2022, the company saw record sales, revenue, and profit, reaching 2,856,600 kiloliters, 14.04 billion yuan ($1.96 billion), and 1.26 billion yuan, respectively.