Climate Change Adaptation In the Brewing and Beverage Sector

KEYNOTE SPEECH - “Climate Change Adaptation- what’s the worst that could happen?”
– Spence Seaman, Adaptation lead for Environmental Permitting, Environment Agency

The world is changing rapidly and will continue to do so despite all efforts to decarbonise. With so much climate change already baked in, we face a real challenge to adapt in time and improve the countries resilience to climate change.

We have already seen plenty of examples where Operators and holders of Environmental permits have not been best prepared for climate change and weather extremes that can have very real consequences for both the local environment and their bottom line.

As chief regulator charged with protection of England’s environment and protecting human health, the Environment Agency is in a very privileged position and is able to help both drive better adaptation planning and also share real examples of good and poor practice to help others to improve their own resilience.

We are all in this together and our collective thinking needs to change faster than the climate is changing…….

“Overcoming the challenges of climate change and water scarcity” – Jonathan Mann, Business Development Manager, Alpheus Environmental

Increased pressure on the UK’s water resources and sewer system poses significant challenges to the brewing and drinks industry. This session provides an overview of the two key challenges - excess stormwater and water scarcity - and explores innovative practices to help alleviate these issues and improve climate resilience for the industry.
Increased rainfall puts pressure on sewers and on many on-site water treatment plants where excess water needs to be processed together with the site effluent. We will share some of the tactics and examples from our parent company, Anglian Water, on how these challenges can be managed.
The impact of water scarcity in many regions is creating challenges for water companies that must serve the needs of the population as this priority. This means that in addition to managing rising water costs, companies looking to expand their operations are finding it more difficult to increase their mains water supply. Water recycling technology provides a viable solution to reuse water on-site. We give an overview of the technology and share a case study on how this works in practice at one of our customer sites.

“Issues and Opportunities in the Malting supply chain in a changing climate” – Nigel Davies, Director of Maltdoctor Ltd

What pressures is climate change placing on the supply of malt for brewing? It is not all bad news but there is an upsurge in questionnaires and data requests relating to climate, carbon footprint and utilities efficiency. Often this is against a backdrop where many farmers don’t see sufficient financial returns in being sustainable or are suspicious of the claims around the benefits of regenerative agriculture.
As customers, brewers know that they should be interested in their suppliers but may see this as a data nightmare creating any value you wish to name – the so called Wild West as many commentators describe it. This talk aims to debunk some of the mis-information around our ability to measure carbon emissions, accurately measure improvement and share benefit across supply chains. Topics covered will be carbon literacy, supply chain carbon intensity, environmental social governance, legal pressures, farming practices, positive case studies that are already delivering or are set to deliver true net zero programmes with absolutely no greenwash.
.

“Climate Change Adaption with Process Heat" – Daniel Wells, National Consultant Specialist UK and ROI

Steam can be produced without the need for fossil fuels - and therefore eliminating CO2 emissions at the point of generation. The presentation discusses the 3 necessary steps to be taken to allow a process to fully decarbonise their thermal energy demand, yet retain their existing infrastructure.

“Genetic informed breeding of climate resilient UK hop varieties” – Dr. Klara Hajdu, Researcher and Hop Breeder at Wye Hops, funded by the British Hop Industry

Hop breeding using conventional breeding techniques is a lengthy process that can take up to 12 years from making initial crosses until a new variety is released. To keep up with the rapidly changing climatic conditions that threaten the survival of hop plants and the fast -evolving beer consumer trends, in this current era hop breeders must develop new cultivars quicker and more efficiently. Genetic informed breeding has huge potential in speeding up the hop breeding process and fast tracking the development of new, locally bred, climate adapted hop varieties for the UK hop growing and brewing industries.

“Challenge to the beer industry; Stop transporting water, concentrate your beer without risking quality” – Maria Lindmark, Business Development Director, Alfa Laval, Copenhagen

Alfa Laval is on a mission to provide breweries with innovative, high quality equipment, that drastically enable reduction of energy and water whilst improving yield. The latest addition to the Alfa Laval brewery portfolio is Revos beer concentration. High quality beer concentrate will revolutionise the beer industry by enabling an 80% reduction in transport, optimisation of brewery capabilities as well as lowering barriers for a smooth and profitable geographical expansion. To further boost value for beer concentrate, Alfa Laval has launched Re-Draft, a unique beer dispense equipment that will blend concentrate and water back to original taste just seconds before being served.

“Roadmap to sustainable Refrigeration” – Ben Sutch, Managing Director of Chudleigh Sutch UK and Lorenzo D’Errico, Beverage Sales Area Manager, Frigel Firenza

Refrigeration plays a crucial role in most brewing processes. Consequently, the journey towards a more sustainable brewing process requires a reduction of the brewery refrigeration plant environmental impact, both in terms of water and energy consumption.

At the same time, manufacturers, such as FRIGEL, are challenged to balance the need to use ever more sustainable refrigerants that marry efficiency with that same potential environmental impact. As a technology driven cooling solutions provider, Frigel has long supported customers within the food and beverage industry with solutions that help them in their net zero journey.

During this presentation Frigel will present its multiple strategies to face the new and different challenges the market is facing to install and operate refrigeration systems that are gentle on the environment while meeting the demands of today’s modern brewery operation.