Anheuser-Busch touts eco-friendly breweries in Fairfield, Houston

Anheuser-Busch touts eco-friendly breweries in Fairfield, Houston
East Bay Business Times - by Kelsey Volkmann
July 30, 2008

One in seven Anheuser-Busch beers will be brewed using alternative fuels by the end of 2009, the brewer said Wednesday.

The company's breweries in Fairfield and Houston are installing alternative-energy technology that will be operational by the end of the year, the company said.

As a result, the company will meet its 2010 goal of having its U.S. breweries run on more than 15 percent renewable fuel, Doug Muhleman, group vice president for brewing operations and technology, said in a statement.

The Fairfield brewery will use solar panels to generate electricity and use a bio-energy recovery system, a technology that converts brewing wastewater into fuel.

The Houston brewery will use biogas, which is naturally produced at nearby McCarty Road Landfill, to create steam energy. It will also use a bio-energy recovery system. The combined technologies will provide more than 70 percent of the brewery's fuel needs, enough energy to power 25,000 homes.

Allied Waste Industries (NYSE: AW) struck a deal with Ameresco McCarty Energy to sell biogas from Allied Waste's McCarty Road Landfill, for use at Anheuser-Busch's Houston brewery. A portion of the biogas from the McCarty Road Landfill is captured, processed and sold to a local utility, while the excess is burned without energy recovery. Ameresco plans to capture some of that unused biogas and transport it to the Anheuser-Busch brewery through a six-mile underground pipeline, the waste company said.

Allied plans to establish a nonprofit organization to distribute $200,000 or more of annual funding to Houston nonprofits, said Gary McCuistion, Allied Waste's director of infrastructure development for the south region.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (NYSE: BUD), through its Anheuser-Busch Inc. subsidiary, is the leading domestic brewer, holding a 48.5 percent share of U.S. beer sales. The company, which accepted a $52 billion takeover offer from Belgian InBev, brews the world's largest-selling beers, Budweiser and Bud Light. Anheuser-Busch also owns a 50 percent share in Grupo Modelo, Mexico's leading brewer, and a 27 percent share in China brewer Tsingtao, whose namesake beer brand is the country's best-selling premium beer.

Anheuser-Busch's Fairfield brewery has a capacity of 4.4 million barrels per year. The brewery produces Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch, Busch Light and Natural Light, and serves Northern California, Alaska, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. It has approximately 475 employees, according to the company's Web site.

The Houston brewery, with some 960 employees, produces Budweiser, Bud Light, Budweiser Select, Bud Ice, Bud Dry, Michelob, Michelob Light, Michelob Ultra, Busch, Busch Light, Natural Light and Ziegenbock. It serves Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, Arkansas, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, according to the company's Web site.

Phoenix-based Allied Waste is America's second largest non-hazardous solid waste services company.

Framingham, Mass.-based Ameresco is the largest independent energy provider in North America.