Water is an increasingly scarce resource and working for the health of watersheds is more necessary than ever, especially in drought situations like the one we are experiencing now. For this reason, and coinciding with World Water Day, HEINEKEN Spain has become the only brewer in our country that returns all the water contained in its beers to its source, a milestone that highlights the company’s ambition. to protect water sources and the environment. The brewery returns more than 1,900 million liters of water per year to the river basins that feed its factories in Seville, Jaén, Valencia and Madrid. And, in addition, it contributes to the preservation of a natural area that is a Biosphere Reserve like Doñana.
Heineken Spain returns 1,000 million liters of water to Doñana every year. It is your way of contributing to creating an oasis of biodiversity in this Biosphere Reserve. And also to contribute to the progress of a land that is united by 120 years of shared moments. Something that will continue to make possible the recently renewed agreement between the brewery and the Junta de Andalucía. It started in 2016 and will continue until 2026.
With an investment to date of more than 370,000 euros, which in the next three years will increase to more than half a million, the actions in Doñana have exceeded initial forecasts. And from September 2023 to the end of February of this year, the accumulated volume of water has already reached 718 million liters.
Heineken Spain’s work in the Doñana area began with the restoration of four wetlands: the Dehesa de Abajo, Pardillas, San Lázaro and El Lince lagoons, improving their water and ecological functionality. Once the semi-permanent nature of these lagoons has been guaranteed, the brewery has focused on maintaining their condition to make good use of the rain and increase the water they store, as well as promoting their public use by adapting the area to make their visit more attractive.
And not only that. In addition to collecting all the rainwater in the area, the brewery has contributed to the improvement of habitats of endangered species. Among them, those that breed in these lagoons, mammals such as the lynx and waterfowl such as the gray teal.
Now, with the implementation of the new agreement signed by Heineken Spain and the Government of Andalusia, the Doñana Project will incorporate new features such as the installation of dovecotes and shelters for bats, an animal of great value according to the UN for its role in mitigating the climate change, the recovery of wetlands and the control of mosquito pests.
Water is a priority for HEINEKEN worldwide, also today on World Water Day. This is a roadmap that is reinforced in countries with high water stress such as Spain, where the company produces brands such as Amstel, Cruzcampo, Heineken® or El Águila. An essential resource for brewing beer, since 95% of beer is water, which the company protects with a triangular strategy, through efficiency, circularity and compensation
The roadmap starts in its factories with an ambitious efficiency plan in Spain that, since 2008, has allowed the company to reduce water consumption per liter of beer brewed by 41%. Currently, Heineken Spain uses 2.9 liters and will continue working to bring this figure down to 2.6 liters in 2025, practically half of what it used 15 years ago (4.9 liters). An objective that it has already met in its factory in Seville and that it aspires to achieve at a national level five years before the date that has been set globally in countries with water stress.
The second side of the triangle is circularity, so that other nearby industries, farmers and nature itself can reuse the treated water through recovery and recycling. And thirdly, as there is a part of the water, that contained in the beer itself (1 liter) and that which evaporates in the brewing process (0.5 liters), that the company cannot stop consuming, Heineken Spain integrates the concept of compensation into its strategy and invests in nature-based solutions to replenish the water that it cannot reduce, purify or reuse to its source basins. This is the case of its projects in Doñana, Albufera and the banks of the Jarama.
