Budweiser Maker Seeks Sustainability While Serving Up Cold Ones

Making “the king of beers” with all renewable power in the U.S. was the easy part.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV has 10 new sustainability goals that promise to be a lot harder than manufacturing Budweiser with clean energy, Tony Milikin, AB InBev’s chief sustainability and procurement officer, said in an interview. Next up in the world’s biggest brewer’s effort to combat global warming and reduce waste: water purification, farming, packaging and transportation.

“Solving some of the water issues across the world is a huge problem,” Milikin said. “We can be there as their flagship customer.”

That’s why the Leuven, Belgium-based company is looking to invest in startups, offering an initial $100,000 investment to winners that can set up pilot programs in each area. The selection will be in September, and additional investments and demonstration projects will follow if the efforts succeed, said Maisie Devine, who will run AB InBev’s sustainability accelerator program. The company plans additional funding rounds with new goals, she said.