Forbes contributor Brian Freedman reported on October 30, 2026 that tequila producers across Jalisco, Mexico, including Patrón, Tequila Ocho and Don Fulano, are expanding water, soil and community sustainability programs as core operations rather than marketing add ons.
The piece draws on interviews with executives and founders at three of the category's most visible producers, who described specific investments: water reclamation systems, soil regeneration work, renewable energy use and funding for schools near agave growing towns such as Arandas, Jalisco.
What Patrón, Tequila Ocho and Don Fulano told Forbes
Samantha Newby, Patrón's global vice president of innovation and sustainability, described the brand's approach to Forbes as built into how its tequila is made rather than treated as a separate initiative. According to the Forbes account, that translates into water reduction, reclamation and reuse at the distillery, less plastic in secondary packaging, composting of agave waste, and extending those practices to the independent farmers who supply Patrón's agave. Separately, Patrón said in a February 2025 release carried by its parent company Bacardi Limited that more than 90 percent of its contracted agave farmers had achieved GLOBALG.A.P certification, a food safety and sustainable farming standard, through work with 21 company agronomists.
Tequila Ocho, founded by fifth generation agave farmer Carlos Camarena, was represented in the Forbes piece by Chris Simmons, described as the brand's agave spirits specialist. Simmons told Forbes that Tequila Ocho donates computers to schools around Arandas and recently produced its first batch under a line the company calls Terroir Select, framing community investment as part of the same sustainability conversation as farming and water use.
Don Fulano co-founder Sergio Mendoza told Forbes that the distillery's central focus is preserving and regenerating soil, which he said supports future agave supply and helps sequester carbon. Mendoza also said Don Fulano has increased its use of solar energy, reduced water consumption through more efficient production systems, and is looking at a future shift to cleaner natural gas, according to the Forbes report.
Why a seven year crop makes sustainability a supply question
Agave tequilana Weber blue, the only variety permitted under Mexico's tequila appellation, takes roughly seven years to mature, which is why producers and regulators alike frame sustainability as long range planning rather than a seasonal fix. The Tequila Regulatory Council, the industry's regulatory body known as the CRT, has set a target for 100 percent of tequila production to carry its Agave Environmental Responsibility certification, known as ARA, by 2027, guaranteeing that agave was grown without deforesting natural land, using 2016 as the baseline year. As of 2023, CRT director Ramón González said the industry had invested more than 7 million Mexican pesos toward that transition, and six companies had released initial batches totaling more than 800,000 liters of ARA certified tequila, according to reporting by Mexico Business News on CRT figures.
What is documented and what is a company's own account
Some of what producers describe is backed by outside verification: Patrón's GLOBALG.A.P figure for its farmer network and the CRT's ARA certification are both third party standards with public criteria. Other details in the Forbes piece, including Tequila Ocho's Terroir Select batch and school donations and Don Fulano's specific soil, solar and water figures, are company accounts given directly to a reporter, without an accompanying audit or certificate cited in the piece. That distinction does not make the claims false. It means a reader cannot yet check them against an independent register the way the ARA or GLOBALG.A.P marks allow.
What this means
This publication tracks Don Fulano Blanco at 78 of 95 in its own four pillar scoring method, a measure built on different criteria than a brand's sustainability disclosures and not evidence for or against any claim made to Forbes. What would make this story easier to verify next time is simple: a published certificate or third party audit attached to each specific figure, the way GLOBALG.A.P and ARA already provide for parts of the supply chain.