Sustainable Development: Axereal's Strategy To Protect Water Resources

At Axereal, protecting resources has been at the heart of our strategy for many years. From preserving biodiversity to improving soil health, numerous projects have been launched, underpinned by an ambitious sustainable development strategy.

Building on these efforts, we have taken the lead in optimising water use across our industrial facilities, an issue identified as early as 2018 as one of our eleven major challenges. “The way water is managed can have a significant impact on our operations as well as on our financial and non-financial performance,” confirms Carmen Dechêne, Head of Sustainable Development at Axereal.

Water is, of course, a key natural resource for the group’s activities, from crop growing to grain processing. “However, the climate context combined with global population growth will reduce its availability in the long run,” points out Xavier de Verneuil, a farmer and group board member. Limited access to water may be directly linked to rainfall deficits but also arise indirectly, due to potential restrictions on consumption imposed by the authorities.

Protecting water resources is especially strategic, as it reflects wider societal concerns. “Consumers are pushing for tangible action in favour of the environment,” states Pierre Toussaint, Director of Agronomy, Transitions and Innovation at Axereal.

A group-wide issue, from agricultural production to industrial processing
So how can Axereal get the ball rolling on a group strategy to reduce water use? As we have seen, the issue spans the entire group, and consequently teams from all of our business units are taking action. Some have set themselves ambitious targets. For example, our malting subsidiary, Boortmalt, is aiming to cut its water consumption by 30% over the decade from 2020 to 2030.

Numerous initiatives are emerging on the ground. In the crop production channels, for instance, the CultivUp Regenerative framework encourages farms to adopt a sustainable agriculture approach including putting in place good practices to preserve water resources (e.g. ensuring irrigation equipment is in good working order to prevent leaks and tracking irrigation practices) and to add in more drought-tolerant species (which require less water) as part of extended crop rotation systems.

The issue is especially pressing in industrial processing, where water demand can be high. To address this, numerous technological innovations have been introduced to support “the development of water-efficient processes, as well as the recovery and recycling of the water already used,” explains Ms Dechêne. This is the case, for example, in the plant protein sector where Intact, whose first factory is currently being built, has developed a dry extraction process using pulses, which requires only minimal water consumption.

Circular systems to recycle water at Boortmalt
The malting sector is also actively engaged in optimising water management – and understandably so, as water is a vital resource in the malt production process. During steeping, for example, barley grains must be immersed in large tanks once or twice for 8 to 12 hours at a time over a two-day period to encourage germination. So, how can water use be reduced during this critical stage? Boortmalt has been exploring this question for several years, leading to the rollout of various innovations at its facilities.

These include the Optisteep technology, developed with Water IQ, which enables a single wet steep phase. In the maltings where this solution has been implemented, such as Antwerp (Belgium), Issoudun (France), and Port Adelaide (Australia), water consumption has been cut by up to 40%. As a forerunner in the field, Boortmalt has committed to promoting sustainable malt production worldwide through this innovation. Hence, the Optisteep solution has not been patented and is freely available as open source.

Boortmalt has now taken its efforts to optimise water use further, with the development of another high-impact solution: reverse osmosis. This technology purifies wastewater from the maltings very effectively so it can be reused within the industrial process. The resulting water meets drinking water standards, meaning it has no impact on either the production process or the final malt product. Reverse osmosis is also a particularly efficient way to remove contaminants from wastewater. This kind of system is already in place at maltings in Australia, and was introduced at the Antwerp plant in January 2025. “It could halve the volume of drinking water drawn from distribution networks, bringing it down from 1.2 million to 600,000 cubic metres a year,” explains Piet Mijten, Group Manager for Water Technologies at Boortmalt. “That’s equivalent to the annual consumption of over 8,000 households.”

Quality beer brewed using less water at Brasserie de Chambord
Brasserie de Chambord opened in February 2025. From the start, it set out to implement a range of environmentally responsible practices, such as sourcing low-carbon barley locally and using an energy-efficient brewing system. This commitment also extends to the sustainable management of water resources. In line with this, two solutions have been introduced in the beer production process.

The first comes into play during the boiling phase. “A system known as Pfaduko enables us to recycle water,” explains Guillaume Bachellerie, Production Manager at Brasserie de Chambord. “The vapour produced during evaporation is recovered, purified and then reintroduced into the process.”

Another stage where water use is optimised is during wort cooling. The chilled water used during this stage is also recovered: by then, it has warmed up and is sent to the hot water tank for reuse in the brewing cycle. The benefits of this are twofold. It saves water while reducing energy consumption, since recycling decreases the volume of water that needs heating.

At the brewery’s current production level (3,000 hectolitres per year), these innovations reduce water demand by around 240,000 litres a year. This is a substantial saving and is set to increase over the coming years as the brewery moves towards its maximum production capacity of 12,000 hectolitres per year.