After a successful pilot year, the two companies report GHG emissions and water savings well beyond their original targets — growers saved over 2 billion gallons of water and reduced emissions over 26%.
In March 2019, Anheuser-Busch (AB) announced a
partnership
with Indigo Agriculture — a leader in
regenerative agriculture
practices
that works with growers to improve profitability, environmental sustainability,
and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and digital
technologies — to advance sustainable production of rice, a key ingredient
in Budweiser and other lighter-colored beers.
Indigo committed to delivering 2.2 million bushels of its Indigo
Rice™ to AB that is
grown with specific environmental attributes. The goal was for the growers to
reduce water and nitrogen used by 10 percent and achieve at least 10 percent
savings in greenhouse gas emissions compared to state benchmarks. The
partnership was the first of its kind to offer growers an end-to-end solution
that incentivizes the commercial production of sustainable rice.
This week, Indigo and Anheuser-Busch — which is the largest end user of rice in
the US — announced the results of their partnership. The resource and emissions
savings achieved in the program’s first year significantly exceeded the targets
set forth by the companies:
-
An average decrease of 23.7 percent water use compared to historical county
averages, totaling over 2 billion gallons — or enough to supply the city of
Jonesboro, Arkansas (where AB’s rice mill is based) for one year.
-
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An average reduction of 13.3 percent in nitrogen application, or nearly
250,000 pounds — the weight of 10 tractor trailers.
-
An average reduction of 26.6 percent in emissions of methane, a key
greenhouse gas equivalent to 5,296 metric tons of carbon dioxide —the annual
emissions of 1,151 passenger vehicles.
The success of the partnership helped AB advance three of its 2025
sustainability
goals:
smart agriculture, watershed health and carbon emissions. Additionally, the
methods by which Indigo measured on-farm environmental savings helped the brewer
to create additional income streams for growers through the abatement and
sequestration of on-farm emissions with Indigo Carbon.
Following the success of the pilot, Indigo and AB have extended their
partnership through the 2020 growing season — and expanded the scope of the
program to nearly 2.7M bushels, broadening its pool of participating growers,
and experimenting with new methods and technologies.
Learn more about the partnership and its results
here,
and find enrollment information for the 2020 growing season
here.
Published May 29, 2020 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST
Sustainable Brands Staff