Much is said about the 2030 Agenda and the commitments that companies assume to contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A medium and long-term path in which Heineken Spain has come a long way, accelerating its sustainability agenda with some ambitious challenges, which it aspires to achieve five years before its group worldwide, in 2025.
Cooperation and alliances are essential within a roadmap that they baptized as decidedly green. For the company, sustainability is not just a color or a fashion, but a way of being that is reflected throughout its value chain, from the farm to the consumer (production, distribution and end customer) in order to achieve a zero impact on carbon footprint, water and waste. And, incidentally, generate a positive impact in the community.
Net zero emissions in production
Since 2018, Heineken Spain has reduced its carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 19%, in a clear commitment to renewable energy. More than 45% of the energy used in the factories is already of this type, and it works so that 100% is before 2025. In fact, since 2020 all the electricity with which it makes its beers is renewable thanks to its alliance with Iberdrola, and its Jaén plant became in 2021 the first zero-emission brewery in Spain and the largest in Europe, thanks to the use of biomass. Two good examples of his work in this field, which is currently focused on two other solar thermal projects developed together with Engie Spain and CSIN. Both will come into operation at the factories in Seville and Valencia in the summer of 2023.
30% less emissions in its value chain
Production barely accounts for 9% of CO₂ emissions in the brewery’s activity. In order to be carbon neutral throughout its value chain by 2040, it is concentrating its efforts on the areas that represent the greatest impact, the packaging and agriculture, in addition to logistics. With an intermediate objective that aspires to reduce these emissions by 30% in 2025.
Thus, in addition to promoting the use of green and precision fertilizers, Heineken Spain already brews its beers with 78% ingredients from certified sustainable crops, and the ambition is to reach 100% by 2025, which once again is shaping up to be a decisive year. It is also a pioneer company in sustainable logistics projects for last Mille, thanks to the use of electric vehicles specially created for the delivery of beer. This project has made Seville the first historic center in Europe with net zero emissions logistics, and it is already being tested in other cities in Spain. In addition, 238,000 eco-efficient refrigeration systems have been installed in bars throughout the country.
Reduce water consumption and return it to the source basins
Heineken Spain has already managed to reduce water consumption by 33% compared to 2008. And there is a determined ambition to use less and less, and be more efficient. Looking ahead to 2025, the company aspires to use only 2.6 liters of water per liter of brewed beer, that is, less than half (-51%) of what it used. Thanks to the water treatment and regeneration and water balance programs, it already treats 100% of its wastewater and returns 1,900 million liters of water per year to the environment, all of which is contained in its beers, with the projects developed in Doñana ( Andalusia), the Albufera (Valencia) or the banks of the Jarama river (Madrid).
Zero waste in factories and circularity of packaging
The great challenge of the company is to maximize circularity throughout its chain. In the production area, the brewery will soon certify its factories in Madrid and Valencia as 0 waste to landfill, something that is already happening in Jaén and Seville. In addition, in 2021, 95% of its waste became resources, and 100% of the by-products derived from brewing were reintroduced in other industries: 200,000 tons of yeast, bagasse and hydroalcoholic mixtures that are transformed into fertilizer for the field, feed for cattle and beer vinegar.
In terms of packaging, Heineken Spain works to eliminate 1,600 tons of plastic and use packaging made with 100% recycled materials. This ensures the best solution to reduce emissions and waste, giving them more lives. The goal is that all the elements of your packaging They are made from 100% recycled material and come from sustainable sources (this is the case of the cardboard they use, coming from responsibly managed forests to avoid deforestation). Likewise, 1,300 tons of single-use plastic will be eliminated per year and 300 tons of plastic rings, to replace them with ones made of recycled cardboard. In addition, the use of returnable formats in the hospitality industry will be maximized (with the ambition of going from the current 74% to 81% in 2025) and the brewery will continue to bet on the recycling of bottles and cans, as a partner of Ecovidrio and Ecoembes. The first products with the seal can already be seen on the shelves Commitment beers without footprint, It reflects your progress and ambitions.
Support for youth employment and the hospitality industry
The Cruzcampo Foundation, the longest-running beer foundation in Spain, has channeled a large part of Heineken Spain’s social commitment for more than 25 years. The contribution of more than 38 million euros that it has made during that time, the 16,000 people it has trained in hospitality and the 95% job placement of the young people participating in its scholarship program Talent Cruzcampo are the best proofs of it.
Without forgetting the value chain, in which the company can have a more positive impact: on its farmers and suppliers, since 92% of its purchases are local; in the nearly 1,400 people who make up his family in Spain and in the almost 110,000 indirect jobs that he helps to create; in its consumers, with which it promotes moderate and responsible consumption with ambassadors such as the tennis player Rafael Nadal and other initiatives and collaborations, and in its hotelier clients, to which it has allocated 340 million euros in the last two years to boost their competitiveness .
