Keep America Beautiful and Anheuser-Busch Announce National Watershed Grant Program

STAMFORD, Conn., October 3, 2018 /3BL Media/ – Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, is partnering with Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) to bring high impact, public space community watershed restoration projects to 10 communities through the 2018 Keep America Beautiful/Anheuser-Busch Watershed Grant Program.

Grant funds total $95,000 for volunteer initiatives ranging from river cleanups to invasive species removal to riparian restoration planting to river bank stabilization and stream buffers, all designed to improve the health and vitality of local watersheds. The projects will engage volunteers from Keep America Beautiful community-based affiliates and partnering organizations working with the input and participation from local Anheuser-Busch wholesalers.

“We are proud of our longstanding partnership with Keep America Beautiful and our collective goal to drive meaningful change for our environment,” said Adam Warrington, vice president, corporate social responsibility at Anheuser-Busch. “Our company wants a world that is cleaner and more sustainable for future generations, and we believe in doing our part to promote water conservation and improved energy efficiency across every aspect of our business. We look forward to our continued partnership with Keep America Beautiful to fulfill our shared objective of a better world.”

Anheuser-Busch is a founding partner of Keep America Beautiful and has been proud to support the organization’s efforts for more than 65 years. The Keep America Beautiful/Anheuser-Busch Watershed Grant Program supports the water stewardship component of the company’s U.S. 2025 Sustainability Goals, which were recently announced this spring. Anheuser-Busch’s sustainability efforts in the U.S. through 2025, include:

• Water Stewardship: 100% of facilities will be engaged in water efficiency efforts; and 100% of communities in high stress areas will have measurably improved water availability and quality
• Renewable Electricity and Carbon Reduction: 100% of purchased electricity will come from renewable sources; and CO2 emissions across the value chain will be reduced by 25%
• Smart Agriculture: 100% of direct farmers will be highly skilled, connected and financially empowered
• Circular Packaging: 100% of packaging will be made from majority recycled content or will be returnable

“Keep America Beautiful is thrilled with our partnership with Anheuser-Busch on this grant program because clean, beautiful watersheds directly connect with a community’s long-term environmental stewardship efforts,” said Helen Lowman, president and CEO, Keep America Beautiful.

Highlights of initiatives supported by the Anheuser-Busch Watershed Grants in 2018 include:

• Keep Washington D.C. Beautiful (Washington, D.C.): The first-ever Love Beer Festival on Oct. 6-7 in Washington, D.C., is a free, family-friendly event open to all beer lovers. In addition, as part of Anheuser-Busch’s Better World initiative, Keep Washington D.C. Beautiful and the Anacostia Watershed Society will co-host a booth to educate festival-goers about the ongoing efforts to restore the Anacostia Watershed. Attendees will be able to sign up for the 2019 Earth Day River cleanup, the Society’s largest annual volunteer event.
• City of Newark Litter Prevention & Recycling (Ohio): The Watershed Grant will be used to support the annual Licking River Roundup, which has been expanded to the entire Licking County.
• Keep Cobb Beautiful (Georgia):  Keep Cobb Beautiful and partners will lead invasive species removal, stream cleanups and restoration plantings along the 20-mile Noonday Creek, which is in the Etowah Watershed.
• Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful: Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, a state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, will create mini-grants to be used for watershed projects throughout the state of Pennsylvania.
• Keep Philadelphia Beautiful (Pennsylvania): Keep Philadelphia Beautiful (KPB), the Philadelphia Water Department, and social enterprise United by Blue will partner with the Heinz Wildlife Refuge in Southwest Philadelphia to conduct KPB’s second annual river cleanup at that site.
• Keep Phoenix Beautiful (Arizona): Currently a dry river bed in South Phoenix, the Rio Solado River will be brought back to health as Keep Phoenix Beautiful partners with Audubon Arizona to repair and replace desert plants along the river bed.
• Keep Riverside Clean & Beautiful (California): Keep Riverside Beautiful conducts the annual Santa Ana River & City Waterway Cleanup, a significant community event that provides hands-on environmental stewardship and beautification of local waterways in Riverside.  
• Keep Smyrna Beautiful (Georgia): Keep Smyrna Beautiful will restore a stream buffer in a community park to protect the adjacent waterway from sources of local pollution.
• Sustainable Saratoga (New York): Sustainable Saratoga partnered with Saratoga Eagle Sales & Service, a local Anheuser-Busch wholesaler, to plant trees at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center inside the Saratoga State Park on World Environment Day.
• Tangipahoa Parish Government (Louisiana): The Parish, which is in the process of affiliating with Keep America Beautiful, will coordinate cleanups along the eight-mile Manchac Greenway, as well as at the waterway at Owl Bayou.

About Anheuser-Busch
For more than 165 years, Anheuser-Busch and its world-class brewmasters have carried on a legacy of brewing America’s most popular beers. Starting with the finest ingredients sourced from Anheuser-Busch’s family of growers, every batch is crafted using the same exacting standards and time-honored traditions passed down through generations of proud Anheuser-Busch brewmasters and colleagues. Anheuser-Busch owns and operates 22 breweries, 20 distributorships and 22 agricultural and packaging facilities, employing more than 18,000 people across the United States. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Celebrating its 65th Anniversary in 2018, Keep America Beautiful strives to End Littering, Improve Recycling and Beautify America’s Communities. We believe everyone has a right to live in a clean, green and beautiful community, and shares a responsibility to contribute to that vision.

Behavior change – steeped in education, research and behavioral science – is the cornerstone of Keep America Beautiful. We empower generations of community and environmental stewards with volunteer programs, hands-on experiences, educational curricula, practical advice and other resources. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the collaborative support of corporate partners, social and civic service organizations, academia, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Donate and take action at kab.org.

###