Minimising Our Environmental Impact

We’re minimising our environmental impact by implementing technical and creative innovations throughout our whole business.

Changing for Climate Change

The world has never been more conscious about the effects of climate change as we face daily news on how the world is trying to keep it cool under the 2°C pressure marker.

According to Business Insider, if temperatures did increase by 2°C, sea levels will likely rise by 1.6 feet, flooding coastlines worldwide. While the amount of fresh water may increase for high latitudes, East Africa, and parts of India and Sahel, subtropical regions may lose nearly one-third of their fresh water.

As beer lovers and citizens of the earth – these facts are not to be taken lightly and we have been working hard to update our global practices. From the type of soil and water used to grow crops, to brewing beer with 100% renewable electricity, to implementing a no-straw-law in all our offices around the globe, AB InBev is working hard to minimise its impact on the environment, as well as lead by example to get other companies to follow suit.

Minimising Our Environmental Impact

Our goals are categorised into five key areas: Smart Agriculture, Water Stewardship, Climate Action, Circular Packaging and Entrepreneurship. Simple yet effective.

Below details the Climate Action Goals and how we’re changing practices in South Africa, in order to minimise our impact.

CNG truck pilot in Gauteng, Alrode

AB InBev has a target to reduce carbon emissions by 36% by 2025. Natural Gas (NG) is a fuel, which is used as a substitute for diesel in many operations. A pilot is to be conducted in Alrode to observe the efficiency of NG in our operations, which would use dual fuel kits allowing the trucks to use NG and diesel.

This will have the effect on helping us lower our carbon emissions as well as lowering the cost of fuel in our fleets

which makes up approximately 50% of our spend on third-party logistics.

Combined Heat and Power generation (CHP)

Co-generation, or combined heat and power is the concurrent production of electricity or mechanical power and useful thermal energy (heating or cooling) from a single unified system.

The Alrode Brewery requires just over seven-kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per hectolitre (hl) of beer produced. This plant generates between one and 1.2 kWh/hl of this demand. This generates a significant saving for the brewery, especially considering that Alrode Brewery produces around 27% of SAB’s 29 million hl of beer annually.

In addition to saving on electricity costs, the plant is helping SAB to reduce its carbon footprint by approximately 8000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Until now, the brewery has used the biogas generated in the effluent plant to solely generate steam through a biogas boiler. The plant also supports the brewery during power failures by carrying the baseload of all essential equipment.

Creating a Better Future Together

By sharing the responsibility to improve all aspects of our supply chain, we count on AB InBev individuals to take it upon themselves and their teams to update their ways of working to be more sustainable and relevant.

Here are some of the faces who are working hard to create this sustainable future: http://sab.co.za/sustainability-report . Scroll through to see if you recognise a colleague, friend or a family member.

Join our community and stay up to date on our climate change actions and initiatives.

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