Milestones
Since 2012, over €35 million has been invested in, amongst others, a new brewing hall, new filtration units, a new steam boiler, new refrigeration compressors, a new barrel line, a new water purification installation and bottling plant. Thanks to all these investments and in spite of a continuous volume increase, the brewery has succeeded in substantially reducing its (raw materials) consumption. The brewery has also made huge efforts in terms of waste reduction and processing.
New sustainable brewing hall introduced in 2012
€7,000,000 investment,
capacity increased to 350,000 hl, resource savings of 10%, energy savings of 50%, 30% reduction in water consumption & first solar panels installed.
2014: Voka environmental charter and sustainability charter
Commitment to 17 specific areas where the brewery chooses to invest in a sustainable policy.
- End poverty in all its forms everywhere
- End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
- Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
- Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
- Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
- Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
- Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
- Reduce inequality within and among countries
- Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
- Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
- Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
- Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
2018 Green deal Flemish government
by signing the Green Deal, the 9 breweries commit,
together to further limit their water consumption by 2022.
Our ambition is to decrease from 3.5 liters to 3 liters of water consumption per liter of beer
Action points that we commit to
- The use of additional rainwater
- Additional buffer tanks for well water and recuperation water
- Production of additional recuperation water
- Optimisation of recuperation water use
- Recuperation water is used for:
Powering the steam boiler
Entire water supply for the barrel line, with the exception of the warm rinse water for the barrels
Bottling plant: all users except the final rinse water in the bottle rinsing machine
CIPs: all water
Museum: everything
...
For the last 3 years the water has been analysed by a certified lab in accordance with the statutory monitoring frequency. In addition, the FASFC has already analysed two samples as drinking water.
So far all samples have met the quality standards for drinking water.
Investments over the years
Results
Water consumption
In litres per litre of beerTotal savings of 99,200m3 per year
(or the consumption of 620 four-person families).
Electricity consumption
in kWh per HLAnnual savings of 2,602,000 kWh/hl
(or the consumption of 580 four-person families).
Steam consumption
in MJ per HLAnnual savings of 46,000,000 MJ
(or the consumption of 980 four-person families).
CO2 emissions
in CO² per hlA reduction of 5,642 tonnes of CO2 in ten years.
This is the equivalent of 564 ha of forest.
Non-recyclable waste
in kg per HLA reduction of 1,222 kg of waste per hl of beer for a period of ten years.
On an annual basis this is 244,400 kg (the equivalent of the consumption of 400 four-person families).