Food & Bev Industry Turns Water Challenges into Opportunities: Report

Improving water management and turning water challenges into business opportunities is seen as not only a way to improve efficiency and save money but also as a powerful marketing tool for the food & beverage industry, as consumers come to see brands as sustainable and concerned about the environment, according to a new report from Research and Markets.

The food & beverage industry, one of the most sensitive in terms of economic shifts and consumer preferences, is moving toward smart, highly connected, and collaborative plants with a focus on control and predictability of products, processing, and resources. Growth areas in terms of water management include:

—Reducing water consumption;
—Reusing and recycling of wastewater with increased water supply independence;
—Incorporating renewables and seeking energy independence;
—Using alternative water resources;
—And reducing the environmental footprint of operations.

Another growth opportunity for the food & beverage industry in terms of water use is the potential for utilizing smart data management. However, high initial investments and lower return on investments are challenges in the smart water management market, according to Data Bridge Market Research.

PepsiCo Focuses on Water Efficiency

PepsiCo is one company taking advantage of some of these growth opportunities. In its 2019 sustainability report, for example, PepsiCo said that it is working to improve operational water-use efficiency, which it has improved by 9% in high water-risk areas since 2015.

The company is also working to improve its agricultural water-use efficiency. One project focuses on smallholder farms across India, where PepsiCo has been piloting a product called “family drip system.” This is a low-tech, low-cost option based on gravity instead of continuously pumped water. The system can help farmers optimize water efficiency by reducing run-off, leaching, and soil erosion. By using water-efficient agricultural practices across its potato supply chain, PepsiCo reduced its water footprint in India by more than 1.7 billion liters in 2019.