Environmental group says Anheuser-Busch outperforms most peers, but could do more
Anheuser-Busch scores higher than all but one company in a cross-sectional study of big beverage firms’ recycling practices by a San Fransisco-based corporate responsibility watchdog group. But the St. Louis- based brewer could do more to boost the use of recycled metal and curb energy use from mining and refining, according to a study released today.
The group, called As You Sow, ranked 16 drinks companies including A-B, Pepsi, Miller, Coors and Starbucks on metrics including: reducing the use of virgin packaging materials, use of recycled content, recycling used containers and transparency. A-B received an overall grade of C-minus, second only to Coca-Cola’s C.
Anheuser-Busch “has the most successful company-wide recycling program, processing five cans for every four it produces,” according to the report. But the company does not take the lead in recycled content, according to the document. The company uses the standard industrial ingots — about 41 percent recycled aluminum — while both Coca-Cola and Red Bull say they exceed the industry standard.
“We strongly encourage Anheuser-Busch, as an industry leader, to push the average recycled content for the industry even higher,” the report intoned.
Amy Galland, As You Sow’s research director, told Lager Heads that Anheuser-Busch has historically taken the lead on “lightweighting” cans, reducing the weight of its cans be 40 percent since the 1970s.
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
New management says its not cost effective– AB will never take the lead in much of anything ever again.
The Corporate EHS Groups were cut from 22 to 5 employees. The new organization will be hard pressed to do any more than put out fires. All the things that made A-B an excellent environmental company will be gone with the cost cutting. Inbev has always been a company that would rather pay fines than spend time and money on putting in systems to comply.
The reduction in workforce is all temporary. A lot of these positions will be backfilled at a future date with much lower wages and benefits. It’s all part of the continuing assault on the middle class and our politicians fiddle as our country burns. Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill and any other elected official that supports our current economic and trade policies need to go.
The EHS Groups at AB were the best in the industry. They were ahead of the curve in reduchion of energy usage, water usage recovery and the reduction of brewery wste streams. These advances all reduced cost and improved efficiencies at AB breweries. A reduction of this excellant staff will cost more than any savings in payroll.