By Barbara Correa, Staff Writer
LA Daily News
8/3/2008 7:52:15 PM

The king of beers is also the king of green.

Years before most of corporate America began embracing the environmental movement, the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Van Nuys was reusing, renewing and recycling.

Since 1995, the factory has been using a bioenergy recovery system. Anaerobic bacteria break down organic material in wastewater from the brewing process. Resulting methane gas provides about 15 percent of the power used to make the beer, said Gary Lee, senior manager of the 800-worker plant.

The system paid for itself in just three years of energy savings, he said.

"The neat part is that it reproduces friendly bugs. ... As they grow, we seed future reactors in other breweries," Lee said.

In fact, Anheuser-Busch announced last week that it wants all 12 of its U.S. breweries to be using renewable fuel by the end of 2009.

In addition to the biogas system, Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corp. has been recycling aluminum, bottles and paper used in production for three decades. The company claims it reuses 99 percent of the solid waste from the brewing and packaging processes, including the grain byproduct from brewing, used to feed cattle.

"On the environment, there's a lot more awareness in the last five to 10 years," Lee said. "We learn here of new ways of doing things. We have a Green Week where there's a lot of focus on conservation. We bring the kids to work and give away tree seedlings."

The brewery hasn't gone as far as asking employees to bring their own empties from home. But if employees did, said Lee, the brewery would recycle them.
Conservation experts say efforts like those at Anheuser-Busch are needed in every industry to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and extend the Earth's natural resources.

"We are counting on leaders like Anheuser- Busch to serve as visible role models for other corporations and consumers and encourage them to make positive changes in their daily activities and operations to better our environment," said Gary Gero, president of the California Climate Action Registry, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group that keeps a database of greenhouse-gas emissions by company.

Gero said Anheuser was one of the first beverage companies to join the registry effort and begin reporting emissions for its California plants.