August 9, 2013 — More and more companies around the world are realizing water shortages pose a business risk. Beverage titan MillerCoors is no exception. The company has long depended on barley growers operating across the arid western United States to provide a staple ingredient in the production of beer. In recent years, reduced snowpack, a changing climate and downstream urban development have combined to limit the amount of water available for irrigation. Working with The Nature Conservancy and Hillside Farm in Silver Creek Valley, Idaho, MillerCoors launched a Showcase Barley Farm in 2011 to model the latest water-saving irrigation technologies. According to Kim Marotta, director of sustainability at MillerCoors, in its first two years of operation the farm has saved 270 million gallons of water while increasing yields and reducing the amount of energy needed to pump water. The system has also gone high-tech with irrigation information being sent directly to the farmers’ smartphones. The next step is to share the knowledge gained through this project and expand these water-saving techniques to other parts of the company’s agricultural supply chain. Photo by freefotouk (Flickr | Creative Commons)