Danish brewery is keen to reduce CO2 emissions

A well-rehearsed mantra when companies announce ambitious new sustainability strategies, is the need to collaborate, but for the Danish brewery Carlsberg the title of their strategy says it all: “Together towards zero”.

Carlsberg decided to go one step further than the signed Paris Agreement’s goals to limit global warming to 2°C, and aligned their climate action with keeping global temperature rises to 1.5°C. Simon Hoffmeyer Boas, the Danish beer company’s director of sustainability, sees working with other companies, governments and NGOs as the key to success in meeting Carlsberg’s four stretching targets to cut its carbon footprint, water waste, irresponsible drinking and workplace accidents all to zero by 2030. Carlsberg strategy for getting its carbon footprint to zero by 2030, is based on a “relentless focus on energy efficiency across our breweries, replicating good practice from one to the other”.

“That partnership angle is what we will continue using in the Together Towards Zero programme, because we’ve seen it be so effective”

In November 2017, Carlsberg announced their first brewery fuelled 100% on biogas and electricity in Falkenberg, Sweden. This is also due to the fact that the energy supplier Ørsted has now replaced natural gas with biogas. Carlsberg also has the world’s fourth largest brewery solar installation in China. Here 8,000 solar panels are generating 21% of the site’s electricity.
Carlsberg actively seeks partnerships in the local markets, to help them meet the targets. Their collaboration partners is a varied range of NGOs, local governments and even coalitions that include competitor businesses. All to help meet the targets.

Innovative solutions in the area includes the green fibre bottle, which will be the world’s first bio-based beer bottle. It is made from 100% biodegradable, sustainably sourced wood-fibre, and is the result of a cooperation between Carlsberg, Innovation Fund Denmark, the Danish startup EcoXpac, Swedish forestry company Billerudkorsnäs and the Technical University of Denmark.
Boas say: “We’ve worked on partnerships in the Carlsberg Circular Economy for three or four years now. That partnership angle is what we will continue using in the Together Towards Zero program, because we’ve seen it be so effective. The fact that the suppliers know about the material is much more valuable than just us telling them what to do.”

Read the full interview with Simon Hoffmeyer here
Want to know more about the first carbon-neutral brewery? Read more here