Home / Sustainability / 2017 Sustainability Report / Sustainability Approach Water Stewardship
GRI 103-1, GRI 103-2, GRI 303-1, GRI 303-3, GRI 306-1

Goal
5%

Reduction of water intensity by the year 2020
Achieved
24%

Reduction of municipal water intensity

Achieved
14%

Reduction of ground water intensity

Compared to 2014 as a base year
ThaiBev takes as inspiration the genius and the resolve of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in his water management projects, emulating them in our own water resource management for the Company’s stakeholders both inside and outside the organization, from communities surrounding factories to the national community. Our objective is to return clean water to its natural source and maintain a well-balanced ecosystem.

Water Intensity Reduction Goal and Achieved


As a consequence of increasingly harsh climate change, Thailand is facing the problems of flood and drought since rainfall has become unpredictable. This directly affects the agricultural sector, the industrial sector, the people, as well as the balance of the ecosystem.

To prevent and to mitigate the problems arising from climate change, ThaiBev, as a total beverage producer and distributor that uses water as a primary resource, embraces King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Sufficiency Economy Philosophy as a guide to water resource management for sustainability across the value chain.
Water Resources Management
With a sense of care for all stakeholders along the value chain, ThaiBev has set up processes for water risk management in terms of both quantity and quality, expanding outward from inside the organization. With strict compliance to international standards, and with a commitment to achieve maximum water consumption efficiency, the Company has created a comprehensive water management system from the upstream to the downstream of the value chain. It has been supported by relationship building with various organizations to organize water conservation activities, efficient water consumption, risk reduction in terms of water quantity and quality, as well as water sources stewardship.



Upstream Management
The Company, Conservation, and Water Stewardship
  • Check dam construction
  • Reforestation
  • Vetiver grass planting
  • River landscape improvement
  • Fish habitat conservation


Operations Management
The Company and Water Risk Management
  • The use of Global Water Tool, Water Resource Review, among others
  • Water reserve system

The Company and Water Consumption Efficiency
  • Appropriate consumption from various water sources
  • Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
  • “3Rs” principle
  • Water footprint


Downstream Management
The Company and Effluents Quality Control
  • ISO 14001
  • Laws and Regulations


Conservation and Water Stewardship
ThaiBev takes as inspiration the genius and the resolve of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in his water management projects, emulating them in our own water resource management for the Company’s stakeholders both inside and outside the organization, from communities surrounding factories to the national community. Our objective is to return clean water to its natural source and maintain a well-balanced ecosystem, the Company has executed the following initiatives:


  • “ThaiBev Helps Create a Good Community with a Smile” Project:
    ThaiBev brought volunteers together to construct a natural rock dam in the forest of Na Suan community, Si Sawat District, Kanchanaburi Province. This check dam will help the community to have more water for agricultural use, especially during the dry season. In addition, the dam helps steer the ecosystem back to abundance, generates income, and results in sustainable local economy developm

  • Pracharath Reforestation on Earth Day Project:
    ThaiBev joins hands with the Forestry Department and the Tambon Wang Thong community, Kamphaeng Phet Province, in the planting of trees to raise awareness around the need to take care of and rebuild natural reserves which have been exploited.

  • Reforestation with Sueb Nakhasathien Foundation Project:
    At Sa Ma Kae community, Kanchanaburi Province, the project is aimed at instilling the value of natural and environmental conservation in youth in order to foster sustainability, as forest conservation means the preservation of abundance in water sources. “Conserve a Fish Habitat, Build a Beautiful Canal”

    Activity as part of the “Water Development, Life Development, Quality of Life Development” project: ThaiBev joins hands with local government agencies and locals from Wang Si Phrai community, Dong Dueay Subdistrict, Kong Krailat District, Sukhothai Province, in releasing a fish variety named Baynchaphan into water sources, and in planting vetiver grass on the banks of the canal to prevent erosion, for the recovery and development of water sources and the ecosystem in the community.

  • “Happy Workplace”
    Initiative brings Company staff together to plant vetiver grass in the area surrounding the factory in order to recover water and soil resources, as vetiver grass has the property of greatly enriching the soil with more moisture.

  • “Unite to Preserve and Purify the Mae Klong” Project:
    ThaiBev collaborates with communities on the banks of the Mae Klong river to organize a project of recovering and improving the landscape of the river, in order to make the landscape on the banks clean, free of obstacles to river flow, and without a chance for polluted water to accumulate. Not only a project of water stewardship, it also fosters good relations with stakeholders who live around the factory area.
Water Risk Management

ThaiBev uses:
  • 1) “Global Water Tool” developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) for the purpose of locating at-risk factories in terms of water shortages or poor water quality,

  • 2) “Water Resource Review,” to keep an account of water consumption amount and water quality in each source related to the Company, and

  • 3) a tool of the Enterprise Risk Management framework to assess water quantity and quality’s risk and impact on business operations, as well as the impact of water consumption by the Company on stakeholders. The Company analyzes all the information, the results of which factor in decision making concerning water management.
In order to reduce adverse effects from water issues, the Company is planning to invest in a water reserve system so that both factories and stakeholders living around factory areas may be able to use water in a reliable and sustainable manner.


Water Consumption Efficiency


Careful consumption of natural resources is one of the ways ThaiBev expresses its responsibility. To that end, the Company foregrounds the following approaches to achieving efficiency in water management:

  • Appropriate water consumption from each water source, so as to reduce adverse effects on the community

  • “Total Productive Maintenance” (TPM) wherein everyone takes part in maintaining machinery and equipment to be in maximally ready condition, so as to reduce waste in water and energy consumption in the production system.

  • Increase production efficiency via the “3Rs” principle, that is, reduce, reuse, and recycle consumed water. As a result of various initiatives, 8.85% of water consumed from the source was reused and recycled in 2017.


3Rs

Reduce
  • Reduction of waste through leakage in the piping systems
  • Reduction of water consumption in the cleaning process of fermentation tanks
  • Increasing water consumption efficiency in the production of steam in the distilling process

Reuse
  • Reusing condensation as boiler feed water in order to reduce water consumption and heat energy
  • Reusing water from the water treatment process for in-factory use in order to reduce regular water usage

Recycle
  • Recycling treated wastewater for use as plant watering


Measure the water footprint, both from direct and indirect consumption, so that the Company may apply the result to help improve and develop water consumption efficiency.

As a result of more efficient water consumption, the Company has achieved reduction of 0.22 hectoliters of ground water and 0.16 hectoliters of municipal water consumed from the source per each hectoliter of finished goods, or a reduction of 14.48% and 19.86% consequently compared to the base year 2014.




Water Intensity (Beverage Business)
Unit: hL/hL of finished goods




ThaiBev has received multiple awards

for the project “Modeling and Expanding the Network of Efficient Groundwater Resource Management in the Industrial Sector through Social Tools” from the Water Institute for Sustainability of the Federation of Thai Industries. The awards evidence the Company’s determination in moving forward with efficient water resource management, reduction in water consumption in the manufacturing process, and strong management in stakeholders’ network.


Effluents Quality Control
ThaiBev has wastewater treatment system each of which are appropriately designed for a particular business. The Company controls wastewater quality in order to be in compliance with the Ministry of Industry’s 2017 announcement about “Control Standard of Factory Effluents 2017”, as well as in concordance with the international standard of environmental management (ISO 14001). As a consequence, in the year 2017, 43% of factories did not release treated wastewater to public water sources, while the remaining factories ensured that their wastewater was treated to the point of reaching a level of quality higher than legally required before being released wastewater into water sources. These factories also routinely submit quality measurement reports to the Department of Industrial Works through both an online system and hard-copy documents.

ThaiBev
2017 Sustainability