A Case Study In Water Sustainability: The Craft Brewing Industry In Alberta and California

Abstract

Access to high quality, reliable freshwater resources has been recognized as a global issue for decades and as the demand for water continues to grow, water management and sustainability issues have been pushed into the limelight. Despite this mounting pressure, variation in water use practices continues to persist, which contributes to both local and global water security challenges. Drawing on the environmental management literature, I noticed that the majority of the existing research focuses on the role of managerial demographics rather than on the process of how managers think, interpret, and act in strategic situations. Thus, in an effort to address this gap I adopted a qualitative research approach, conducting semi-structured interviews with managers at craft breweries in Alberta and California. My findings indicate that managerial sensemaking acts as a mediating process in a manager’s choice of water management strategy, ultimately influencing their brewery’s water use performance. And, that these relationships are affected by managerial characteristics as well as contextual factors. As the world’s demand for fresh water, and the number of people living in water stressed conditions continues to rise, these findings have important implications. By both extending and contributing to existing sensemaking and cognitive frame theory, my findings shed light on alternative cognitive determinants driving water use variation and thus support the development of more sustainable water management practices.