HEINEKEN Mexico’s Tecate Brewery becomes fully water balanced in the Rio Colorado watershed

“The Tecate water balance project reinforces that effective water stewardship depends on strong community engagement. We have not only replenished water to nature, but also supported projects that strengthen local communities and help wildlife thrive once again.Sarai Rodriguez, Environment and Circularity Lead at HEINEKEN Mexico

Our 2030 water strategy, ‘Towards healthy watersheds’, focuses on water efficiency, long-term restoration of priority watersheds, and collaboration with communities where we operate, especially in water-stressed areas . We aim to fully balance the water we put in our products in water-stressed areas in scope by 2030. This means replenishing 1.5 litres of water to the local watershed for every litre of beer we produce. We implement a variety of interventions aiming to achieve it, from nature-based solutions to infrastructure improvements and water access initiatives in priority areas.

In Mexico, HEINEKEN operates breweries at seven locations, representing approximately 15% of global production. Five of these breweries are located in water-stressed regions. The Tecate brewery is located within the Colorado River watershed – one of the main river systems in North America, which spans seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Due to extensive upstream water use, the river has not consistently reached the Gulf of California since 1960.

Restauremos El Colorado A.C. is a Mexican NGO on a mission to restore the Colorado River Delta by securing water flows, managing habitat restoration, and advocating for sustainable water policies.

In 2018, HEINEKEN Mexico partnered with Restauremos El Colorado A.C. to support river restoration efforts and raise public awareness around the ecological importance of the Colorado River. Since the start of the collaboration and through HEINEKEN investment, 83 hectares of riparian ecosystem have been improved, by the delivery of more than 800,000 cubic metres of water per year, and supporting habitats and instream flows along up to 17 kilometres of the river in Mexico.

Building on these restoration efforts, the project delivered measurable co-benefits for communities, biodiversity, and ecosystem health across the lower Colorado River basin. By reconnecting river flows with degraded floodplains, the interventions have enhanced soil moisture retention and improved water quality by reducing salinity levels. Restoration of river flows helped expand vegetation coverage and increased the diversity of habitat types, resulting in the return of 150 native and migratory birds as well as protected wildlife species such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, and flora.

Local communities in this arid region of north-west Mexico also benefit indirectly from improved ecosystem services along downstream sections of the river receiving restored flows. Through long-term collaboration between HEINEKEN Mexico and Restauremos El Colorado A.C., the initiative demonstrates how nature-based solutions can simultaneously contribute to watershed resilience and biodiversity recovery in the Colorado River Delta.