Brewing is an extremely energy-intensive process in which the costs of electricity, heat, gas and other energy carriers make up a large share of total costs. Breweries that identify measures to improve energy efficiency reap several benefits — not least in terms of lower operating costs. They also create the prerequisites for making use of tax benefits, which only are available to companies that have established an energy management system (EnMS). TÜV SÜD supported a brewery located in southern Germany in the establishment of an EnMS in accordance with the ISO 50001 standard.
Production, storage and distribution processes at breweries all are associated with high energy use. As breweries operate in a very competitive market, they cannot simply pass on the rising energy costs to consumers by charging higher prices. Given this, many breweries have already started realizing individual measures to reduce their energy consumption, focusing frequently on the most energy-intensive steps in their production processes. This marks an important first step. However, to identify all cost-effective opportunities for improvement, breweries must look at the entire production chain.