We’re constantly trying to make everything about our beers better. Snap Pack is one of the results. It replaces shrink wrap and plastic rings on multipacks, cutting both our plastic usage and carbon emissions.
Cutting the carbon footprint of our value chain means pioneering new technologies with expert suppliers. In 2020, 20 new fully electric heavy-duty trucks will start delivering our beer in Switzerland using CO2 neutral electricity. We requested specific features for the fleet from Renault following learnings from a trial in 2019.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers enjoy our beer. We are working with organisers to switch from one-way plastic and introduce other eco-friendly measures – easier said than done, especially in rural locations. At Northern Europe’s biggest festival, Roskilde in Denmark, we overcame the challenges.
Reducing our beer-in-hand carbon footprint means innovating across our packaging portfolio. And innovations are best achieved in partnership with other experts. The paper bottle company, Paboco, is helping us achieve breakthroughs in our Green Fibre Bottle project, developing the world’s first 100% bio-based beer bottle made from sustainably sourced wood fibres.
It’s been a big year for 1.5°C. At this critical time for the planet, media coverage has been unprecedented and there was an affirmed commitment at COP25. Our sustainability ambitions at Carlsberg are aligned to the most ambitious science-based target of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, going beyond the Paris Agreement’s base level.
We have been investing to eliminate coal from all our breweries by 2022 and eliminate carbon emissions by 2030. Since 2015, we have reduced emissions by 30% and increased renewables to 56% of our total electricity use. Five of our sites are now carbon-neutral.
Reaching our ZERO targets will not be easy. And many of the solutions for eliminating carbon and waste water at our breweries do not yet exist. Our Young Scientists Community – some of the world’s brightest postdoctoral researchers – is developing and scouting for these solutions at the Carlsberg Research Laboratory in Copenhagen.
Developing a sustainable tomorrow can only happen together. In 2019 we announced an ambitious project at our Fredericia brewery, the result of public-private partnership with DRIP in Denmark. It will use innovative water recycling technology to reuse 90% of process water, providing learnings for our other wastewater treatments around the world.
People are increasingly looking for great-tasting alcohol-free brews (AFB) as a positive choice. In 2019, we saw a 7% volume growth of our AFBs, with our brands now available in 69 markets. We couldn’t have achieved this without our partners.