AB In-Bev commits to 100% renewable energy

AB InBev has announced its commitment to sourcing 100% of its electricity usage from renewable power.

“Climate change has profound implications for our company and for the communities where we live and work,” said AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito. “Cutting back on fossil fuels is good for the environment and good for business, and we are committed to helping drive positive change. We have the opportunity to play a leading role in the battle against climate change by purchasing energy in a more sustainable way.”

The company said it hopes to power all its global operations from renewable sources by 2025. The resulting reduction in carbon emissions will be equivalent to removing 500,000 cars from roads annually.

The commitment will make AB InBev the largest corporate direct purchaser of renewable electricity in the consumer goods sector globally and will reduce the company’s operational carbon footprint by 30%.

AB InBev has also joined RE100, a global initiative of influential businesses that are all committed to using 100% renewable electricity.

“This is not an offset,” Tony Milikin, AB InBev’s chief sustainability and procurement officer, told TriplePundit. “We’re aiming to invest in renewables within each country in which we do business.”

The company will initially focussing its attention on Latin America. It has signed a power purchase agreement with Spanish clean-energy company Iberdrola in Mexico to provide it 490GWh of renewable electricity a year - enough to power all of its operations in the country - which will fund Iberdrola building 220MW of new wind capacity in Puebla, central Mexico.

Meanwhile in Brazil, the company has already started using biogas in some of its breweries and expects 40% to of its energy needs to come from similiar sources by the end of the year.

The move isn't just about the environment, AB InBev hopes turning to clean energy it will make its products more appealing to millenials.

“From a passion standpoint, we understand that we have consumers for whom this is a passion point,” Milikin said. “We are matching our passion point with their passion point.”

The brewer has also become more efficient when it comes to water consumption. A decade ago, it took five litres of water to make one litre of beer. Now, that ratio has narrowed to almost 3 to 1. And its SmartBarley program seeks to source more beer-brewing ingredients locally rather than importing them.

AB InBev plans to launch similar environmentally friendly projects in India and South Africa.