Water Resilience: Navigating Supply Challenges in Food & Beverage | Emily Yates
Water Resilience: Navigating Supply Challenges in Food & Beverage
Food and beverage companies face unique water supply and wastewater challenges, especially in rural areas.
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Water Resilience: Navigating Supply Challenges in Food & Beverage | Emily Yates

Food, Beverage, & Agribusiness

Food, beverage, and agribusiness companies are under increasing pressure to reduce costs, maximize operational reliability, boost yields to meet global demand, cut climate impacts, and navigate complex regulatory requirements. Geosyntec brings deep technical expertise across environmental management, water supply and treatment, and regulatory and risk mitigation to help our clients meet these critical challenges. Together, we design innovative, tailored solutions that position them for sustainable success.

A food and beverage factory production line with many plastic bottles and the text: “FOOD AND BEVERAGE: Maintain Process Up-Time, Meet Compliance Obligations.”.
A graphic with text reading Water Management for Manufacturers and Address Diverse Water and Wastewater Treatment Problems over an image of industrial pipes and valves outdoors.
Aerial view of a water and wastewater treatment facility with round tanks, buildings, and greenery, overlaid with text: WATER AND WASTEWATER: Treatment Processing and Engineering.

Practice Specifics

Clients rely on Geosyntec for support throughout all project phases:

  • Characterization
  • Design
  • Permitting
  • Construction support
  • Start-up and commissioning
  • Post-construction asset management

Our team uses our comprehensive understanding of the business and regulatory challenges of the current marketplace to provide solutions for clients ranging from large, multinational agribusiness and food companies to owner-manager, coop, and family-run enterprises.

Our expertise in process, design, and operations, as well as in agricultural chemical and food-industry wastewater, surpasses most independent environmental consulting firms, enabling us to deliver practical, best-value solutions tailored to industry demands.

On behalf of plant managers, we address pressing and complex matters at facilities where crop protection products, fertilizers, and nutrients are manufactured, distributed, or sold, as well as at facilities where food is processed.

We provide a full array of professional and responsive services to the following types of food processing and agribusiness facilities:

  • Beverage products
  • Cheese and dairy
  • Confectionary
  • Fish and seafood
  • Fruit processing and packing
  • Ingredient manufacturing
  • Juice production
  • Malting
  • Meat harvesting and processing
  • Potato processing
  • Prepared foods
  • Rendering (edible and inedible)
  • Snack foods
  • Sweeteners
  • Wet sauces
  • Vegetable processing

With more than 30 years of industry experience, Geosyntec applies sustainability principles and so clients can do more with less as regulations evolve and budgets tighten, delivering comprehensive, efficient, and effective environmental solutions.

  • Define problems and support clients in making comprehensive, informed decisions.
  • Focus on the best solution for each client’s needs.
  • Supply structured project management anticipating the natural cycle of problem solving.
  • Deliver in-house treatability testing to validate innovative ideas and support successful projects.
  • Support projects throughout their full life cycles, from characterization through asset management.

We conduct applied research and development, often working with leading universities on topics such as stresses and strains on geosynthetics during seismic events, site response analysis, and seismic design of municipal solid waste landfills. In addition, we have contributed to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) load and resistance factor design (LRFD) specifications for bridge substructures including foundations and retaining wall systems.

Our senior practitioners have authored technical design and construction manuals for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) focused on foundation support systems, earth retaining systems, and earthquake engineering. We have also contributed to many guidance documents for state and federal environmental and transportation agencies, and the United States Department of Defense, helping them create guidance on avoiding or mitigating the potential impacts of geohazards in the built environment.

We often consult on state-of-the-practice design applications, are geotechnical training instructors for the National Highway Institute (NHI) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and provide technical training analysis to state departments of transportation and for contractors. Several of our practitioners are recipients of the ASCE’s highest awards for advancing the state of the practice in geoengineering.

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What is a Quick Qual?

Food, Beverage, & Agribusiness Services

  • Water Supply and Water Security

    Food and beverage production facilities rely heavily on high-quality water for daily operation; therefore, source water protection is key to maintaining uninterrupted operation, long-term sustainability, and production efficiency while protecting corporate branding and public image.

  • Risk Management and Process Safety

    Preventing accidental releases of hazardous chemicals from facility processes is both an environmental and health and safety responsibility. Examples of processes where process hazards may need to be managed include ammonia refrigeration systems and chlorine gas disinfection of water.

  • Odor and Air Quality Services

    We recognize that the potential impacts associated with odor and other air quality issues can be challenging. Achieving and maintaining regulatory compliance is critical to long term operations. It is vital to be a good neighbor to the public and other industrial sources.

  • Environmental Compliance and Management Systems

    Geosyntec assists clients with a variety of environmental compliance and management systems services. These services range from proactive compliance evaluations to corrective actions that address non-compliance, and can be summarized as follows:

  • Wastewater Treatment and Residuals Management

    Geosyntec has unmatched consulting expertise in food and beverage industry wastewater management solutions. We understand the demands and cost margins of the food processing industry and we have the engineering and industry experience to provide complete wastewater treatment services from concept through detailed design, construction management, and training and supervision of operations personnel.

  • Sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance

    In the face of increased pressure to meet corporate objectives and stakeholder demands while continuing to provide a high-quality product or service, sustainability drives business decisions more than ever before.

  • Water Conservation, Reuse, and Minimization

    The growing scarcity of high-quality water has led the food and beverage sector to make strong commitments to water conservation programs for their facilities. These commitments are increasingly driving changes to food production processes as their impact is incorporated into day to day facility operations.

  • Water Rights

    Businesses, agriculture clients, and municipalities need to understand and manage their rights to use water. This is especially true in the Western United States, where clients must balance future needs with changing laws and court decisions.

  • Global Product Stewardship

    For decades, global chemical control and downstream product regulations, bans, restrictions, and reporting obligations have proliferated, creating major challenges for multinational corporations (MNCs).

  • Water Supply Production Wells

    The ability to develop and enhance sustainable water resources while balancing the benefits to human populations and water-dependent ecosystems represents one of the more critical issues facing communities across the globe.

  • Environmental Permitting and Compliance

    Geosyntec provides a diverse portfolio of services to our public and private clients to improve their environmental and financial performance, manage risk, and reduce environmental liabilities consistent with their financial and stewardship goals.

  • Industrial Wastewater Treatment Systems

    As the size and complexity of our clients' most challenging environmental and infrastructure projects have grown, so has Geosyntec's ability to deliver solutions through specialized process engineering services.

Food, Beverage, & Agribusiness Projects

Lead Practitioners

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