May 15 2009
A cynical take on SAB’s efforts to look green
I’ve written before about the shocking fact that five liters of water go into making one liter of beer.
Well, that’s the average for breweries around the world today. Thankfully, our own South African Breweries (SAB), the world’s second biggest brewer, averages a little below the 5-liter mark.
And it’s quite active in this area, doing whatever it can to further lower its water-use. That’s why I was very impressed when I first saw SAB was cooperating with the WWF to develop “water-neutral breweries”. Look here.
That was until I read the article and noticed the SAB/WWF project was more about “SAB securing its own interests” than about “SAB doing something good for the environment”. (Unless you think brewing beer is doing something good for the community and the environment. In fact, it reminds me of what that famous French lady once said: “No more bread? Well, let them eat cake.”)
For example, trees are to be chopped down on Table Mountain, to secure the water supply to the SAB brewery in Newlands.
Would the better water conservation programme here not be to close the brewery down? Read the article and let me know whether I’m a bit “over-cynical” and/or “over-sceptical”. After all, the WWF has been around a while – it won’t allow itself to be taken for a ride. Or would it?
The five-liters-of-water-for-one-liter-of-beer fact pales into insignificance against this fact: It takes 2,400 liters of water to make a single hamburger.
Don’t believe me? Look here.
Christo