Right. Let’s talk about sustainability. If you regard the world as your family, you should take good care of it. That is exactly what Royal Swinkels Family Brewers does. Family business from Lieshout is committed every day to handing over the brewery to the next generation in a responsible and environmentally friendly way. Sustainability manager Marthijn Juggeburth explains how this affects day-to-day business operations. “The idea is to first save as much as possible and then become more sustainable.”
eer is a natural product. Raw materials such as barley, hops, water and yeast are used for brewing. Marthijn: “A healthy agricultural sector and clean water are therefore of vital importance to us. Goodquality barley must also be available for the next generation of brewers, for example. This is only possible if we cherish nature and the environment. There will be an increasing scarcity of raw materials due to climate change, so we have to be careful with it. I think that compared to others, the beer industry is perhaps the furthest at this.”
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TAKING RESPONSIBILITY For Swinkels Family Brewers, smart use of raw materials starts with efficient use of water. Brewing beer requires a lot of water, per litre of beer you use four times as much water. If you look at the entire water chain, from the rain needed for barley cultivation to rinsing the beer glasses, you’re talking 150 litres of water per litre of beer. Marthijn: “We take our responsibility and look closely at our use of raw materials. What enters the brewery and what goes out? This is how, for example, the Farmer, Beer, Water project was born. In this project, we use water in the area more efficiently. For example, by cleaning the wastewater from our brewery and feeding it back into the agricultural area. This way, the groundwater level rises, the soil dries out less and we close the circle.”
