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Self-supply manager Waterscan has guided a major brewer through its journey to obtaining a self-supply licence for 11 breweries with ambitious plans to cut water usage by half and eliminate water waste by 2050.
Marston’s and Carlsberg formed a joint venture in 2020, which meant the self-supply licence Marston’s has held since 2017 was no longer valid while the deal was finalised.
During the transition, Waterscan acted as water retailer to ensure a continuity of supply, something that managing director Neil Pendle said the company was exploring more opportunities to do in the future.
Pendle told Utility Week: “The experience of retailing to Carlsberg Marston’s has opened our eyes to new opportunities. We are looking at supporting some customers, particularly in the Scottish market where self-supply is not an option. We’re looking to take a more active role in the retail market in Scotland.”
He explained the transitioning process for Carlsberg Marston’s was beneficial for all parties and something Waterscan would look to offer in the future. “It can help get some of the wins of control prior to going to self-supply,” Pendle said. “That’s a valuable route we haven’t explored before but are looking to do more of and in discussions with a few companies now.”
The licence certification process for Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company is due to complete in April and it will be able begin self-supply in spring or early summer. At that point the company will be able to resume its previously active role in the self-supply community and gain eligibility to vote in market operator-related (MOSL) affairs.
As part of its environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets the brewing giant has committed to cut water usage at its breweries by 25% during 2022. By 2030 it aims to achieve a 50% reduction to eliminate water waste.
Pendle said there is significant interest in water resilience among brewing companies: “The resilience piece is really important because many brewers are running off boreholes so water quality and risks to changes in that really affect the brewing process. This is a matter for them to get actively involved, which is why self-supply works for them to understand the risks and resilience around supplies.”
Pendle said self-supply provides a chance for companies to understand their water usage within the climate change agenda: “Cost reduction, control and reporting are the base level of what companies get with self-supply. The more interesting stuff around disclosure, risk and resilience are the services we’re building now. Most of the big companies will take those services and use them to feed their ESG agenda. We’re looking to roll that out across all our companies in the next year or two.”
He said it is increasingly important for clients to understand their impacts on the environment and how climate change could threaten supplies through drought.
Consumption is measured at all sites whose self-supply is managed by Waterscan as well as a reporting package provided, Pendle explained: “Then moving on to more interesting parts of resilience and risk we assess what the risk is in 10 years to the supplies: is there an immediate drought or flood risk and how resilient are the supplies? We really work with the water resources groups across the country which is an important factor in self-supply because we feed through to those groups quite actively to address the risk and resilience piece.”
He said several more companies are in discussion with Waterscan to obtain a self-supply licence.
Leisure centre operator David Lloyd, which has held a licence since 2020 but has not yet switched, is preparing to do so by the summer to bring its 99 UK sites onto self-supply.
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