North America
MillerCoors Water Stewardship Month
During September 2009, MillerCoors celebrated the company’s first annual Water Stewardship Month. Each of MillerCoors’ 10 brewery locations and corporate facilities linked up with local non-profit organisations and hosted volunteer events designed to improve water quality.
Within their local communities, MillerCoors’ employees helped to clean up rivers and beaches, restore stream beds, test water quality and plant trees, bushes and perennials in preservation areas. In total, 528 employees volunteered for a total of 1,658 hours during Water Stewardship Month.
In Chippewa Falls, employees cleaned up debris alongside a half-mile stretch of the Duncan Creek, collecting five truck loads. In Albany, volunteers placed 300 storm drain markers on a major street to alert residents that chemicals deposited into the storm drain could jeopardize water quality.
MillerCoors also invests in watershed quality, education and conservation efforts nationwide through partnerships with The Nature Conservancy and River Network.
Getting to zero six years early
MillerCoors believe that waste is simply a resource out of place, and are committed to finding ways to reuse and recycle whenever they can.
In 2009, the business reduced the total amount of waste sent to landfill by more than 20%, exceeding its 2015 waste goal six years early. Three MillerCoors breweries have now reached zero waste status: Elkton in Virginia, Irwindale in California and Trenton in Ohio.
Achieving zero waste at MillerCoors
MillerCoors has set itself a challenging target to find new opportunities to reuse, reduce and recycle brewery waste. In a single year the business reduced the total amount of waste sent to landfill by more than 20% and met its 2015 waste goal in 2009.
Three breweries at Elkton in Virginia, Trenton in Ohio, and Irwindale in California achieved their goals of zero waste to landfill during this past year. The breweries have reduced solid waste by reducing usage, recycling or finding reuse streams for a broad spectrum of materials ranging from spent brewery grains to filter powders such as kieselguhr (a filtration medium). The Elkton brewery recycles or reuses 99.6% of its wastes. The remaining 0.4% goes to the waste-to-energy facility.
Promoting diversity and inclusion
MillerCoors employs a diverse range of people from different backgrounds and cultures. The business supports an inclusive environment that promotes employees working together, while listening to the concerns and opinions of minority groups.
MillerCoors has a number of Employee Affinity Groups (EAGs) at its breweries and corporate offices that work together to celebrate different cultures, network and help employees gain leadership experience. These include AAEN (African American Employee Network), BREW (Building Relationships and Empowering People) and CHEN (Coors Hispanic Employees Network).
EAGs work with community leaders to organise volunteer events and help make a difference within their local communities.
