How will you reduce the impact on the environment from the transportation of all that beer?

1.       We brew locally at our Swiss brewery instead of shipping the beer from other countries in Europe.

2.       We deliver all Carlsberg beer in kegs instead of bottles or cans, which reduces the waste.

3.       We have secured more than 20.000 kegs, so that we won’t have to refill the kegs too often during the 3 weeks – this reduces the transportation back and forth between the brewery and the cities.

4.       We will transport all the beer by train, which will significantly reduce the environmental impact compared to transportation by truck – it will save the environment from burning of 59.000 litres of diesel or 157.000 kilos of CO2 pollution. For practical and timing reasons, however, we have to transport the empty beer kegs back to our brewery in Switzerland by truck, when they have to be refilled.

 

But you’re right; it is a huge logistical task delivering beer to an event of the magnitude of UEFA EURO 2008. Some 5-7 million people are expected to visit the stadia and the fan parks across Switzerland and Austria.

All suppliers have these challenges delivering food and other beverages to UEFA EURO 2008.

At Carlsberg, we have the advantage of having a major brewery, Feldschlösschen, near Basel in Switzerland. This brewery already has the ability to brew Carlsberg, and has for several years provided Carlsberg to the Swiss and Austrian markets.

 

Why can’t you brew the beer at local breweries? There are plenty of breweries across Austria and Switzerland. Wouldn’t this reduce the pollution from transportation?

There are two main reasons, why we can’t brew Carlsberg at local breweries:

1.       The Carlsberg brewing technique has been developed and refined during more than 150 years – it is no small task setting up a brewery to be able to produce the right Carlsberg quality.

2.       The global beer market is very competitive and, accordingly, Carlsberg has to run its business in an efficient manner. Across the world we have for years reduced the number of breweries to make them more efficient. This, also, has a positive environmental effect.

 

There is quite a long distance – 840 km – from your brewery in Basel to Vienna, which is where most visitors are expected. Won’t it be very harmful to the environment to transport all the beer across these distances?

We have made an agreement with the Austrian railways, so all the Carlsberg beer for Austria will be transported by train, which gives the least impact on the environment. During the 24 days of the EURO 2008 we expect to ship 27.000 Hectolitre of Beer – or 2.7 million litres. Each train will pull 18 wagons with a total of 7.000 kegs of Carlsberg beer. We will have a total of 140 wagons rolling into Austria. When compared to the only alternative – trucks - this solution will save the environment from burning of 59.000 litres of diesel or 157.000 kilos of CO2 pollution.