July 14, 2025

Industry Best Practices for Water Efficiency During Peak Season

As summer temperatures rise, so does industrial water demand. For many Commercial and Industrial (C&I) facilities, especially those in the beverage sector, this seasonal spike can strain both natural resources and operational budgets. Implementing water efficiency strategies during peak season is no longer an environmental imperative but a business-critical necessity.

Manufacturers, from breweries to food processors, are adopting advanced solutions to get ahead of regulations, reduce reliance on dwindling supplies, and meet sustainability targets. Cambrian, a leader in water and energy recovery, has updated its peak-season best practices. Our experts share key insights to help facilities optimize performance when it matters most.

Understanding the Summer Surge

Among Cambrian's customer base, beverage companies like Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, and Keurig Dr Pepper experience the steepest rise in summer water demand due to cooling towers water consumption and other sources of seasonable demand included elevated summer production. For example, Pepsi ramps up Gatorade production between June and August, creating a predictable but challenging spike in water needs.

What is the impact? For facilities who take water for local municipalities, they will see a spike in their water costs, and potential constraints on water use driven by local regulation. For those not on a city water system the constraints can be more severe. Groundwater withdrawal limits imposed by state agencies and local municipality water sources can create significant bottlenecks limiting heavy withdrawals during summer months. These restrictions particularly affect facilities in water-scarce regions such as Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, where many plants rely on groundwater instead of municipal supplies.

Proactive Strategic Planning Always Wins

Planning typically begins in spring and is led by plant managers with support from corporate sustainability teams. This early collaboration includes working with state regulators to establish summer allocations and identify heavy users of water within facilities and flag potential water stress points before they escalate.

Proactive planning also involves tracking key performance metrics. For Cambrian clients, the leading benchmark is gallons of water used per unit of product. Targets vary by sector, but as a reference:

  • Leading beverage plants target 1.2 gallons of water per 1 gallon of product.
  • Large breweries aim for 2.5 to 2.8 gallons per gallon of beer.

Technology That Delivers High-Quality Reuse Water

Onsite water reuse is one of the most effective strategies for peak-season efficiency. Cambrian's modular systems treat wastewater to a quality that meets or exceeds city or groundwater. This high-grade reuse water is ideal for non-contact uses like cooling towers and equipment cleaning, where demand intensifies during hot months.

Unlike traditional systems requiring dedicated personnel, Cambrian offers a pure pay-for-performance model. Cambrian owns and operates the infrastructure, eliminating CapEx and ensuring full performance even during extreme heat.

Cooling Towers: A Critical Use Case

Cooling towers are major water consumers during the summer, making them ideal candidates for reuse water. Cambrian's systems provide water with lower mineral content than most sources, improving cooling efficiency and reducing blowdown rates. This saves water, reduces energy and scaling, and lowers maintenance needs.

The impact is tangible. At Anheuser-Busch's Houston Brewery, daily water demand jumps from 200,000 gallons in February to 500,000 gallons in July. Cambrian supplies 400,000 gallons per day of reuse water during peak months, helping the brewery save nearly $1 million annually.

Future-Proofing Against Regulatory Pressure

Droughts often bring tighter enforcement of groundwater extraction limits. Cambrian's solutions reduce dependency on constrained sources, ensuring compliance and production continuity. Additionally, Cambrian systems are equipped to treat emerging contaminants like PFAS, reducing future compliance risk.

Prioritizing Action with Limited Capital

For facilities with constrained budgets, Cambrian recommends focusing on:

  • Water use ratio hotspots
  • Total water and wastewater costs
  • Regulatory or compliance risks
  • Corporate reputation and expansion goals

Targeting high-impact, low-barrier opportunities helps facilities gain momentum without waiting for annual CapEx cycles.

Best Practices for Sustaining Performance

During peak season, maintenance and training often become bottlenecks for traditional systems. Cambrian solves for this by assuming full operational responsibility. Performance assurance is built into the model, keeping systems running even in extreme conditions.

The Payoff: Efficiency, Compliance, and Growth

Peak-season preparedness is essential with water scarcity driving regulatory and operational risk. With a proactive strategy and the right technology partner, facilities can:

  • Maintain production without exceeding extraction limits
  • Reduce water use ratios tied to internal bonuses
  • Avoid CapEx while gaining scalable infrastructure
  • Demonstrate leadership in sustainability and compliance
  • Enable growth without the need for costly capital expansion

Reducing regulatory exposure, improving ESG performance, and unlocking operational capacity without additional CapEx speaks directly to strategic imperatives at the executive level.

Ready to Make Every Drop Count?

Cambrian has helped some of the nation’s largest beverage producers navigate peak season with confidence and efficiency. Explore the Anheuser-Busch case study to see how 400,000 gallons of reuse water per day turned into $1M in annual savings and operational resilience.

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