NETHERLANDS – Heineken, the world’s second-largest brewer has announced that all its Heineken beer for the Dutch market has been brewed using 100% green energy since July this year as part of its mission to be fully circular by 2030.
This applies to all product and packaging variants covered by the Heineken brand including Heineken 0.0.
The brewer set the target in 2010 and has been working on its global sustainable ambition ‘Brewing a Better World’ by, among other things, reducing the CO2 emissions of the breweries.
In addition, the company installed wind turbines and large quantities of solar panels in line and started the use of biogas in 2018, which is fully operational now.
Hans Böhm, Managing Director HEINEKEN Netherlands said, “With our global ‘Brewing a Better World’ program we are making the chain and our products sustainable step by step.
“Our ultimate goal is to be fully circular in the Netherlands by 2030 with breweries that are completely climate neutral.”
The brewer has further revealed that both the thermal and the electrical energy used in the brewery’s beer production of around 3 million hectolitres and the packaging lines is sustainably generated from solar energy, wind energy and biogas from waste purification.
Biogas is produced from the waste water of the breweries in Zoeterwoude and Den Bosch and supplemented with biogas from the waste purification of the Aa Water Authority and Maas.
“We really consider green energy to be an indispensable new ingredient in our Heineken beer. Wind and sun are just as important as hops, water and yeast.
“The use of sustainable energy literally makes Heineken even greener. But our ambition goes further. The next step is to make our packaging materials more sustainable in the short term and to further close the material cycle in the Netherlands”, says Böhm.
In the field of packaging materials and logistics processes, the brewery offers Heineken 0.0 in refillable green bottle and crate.
In addition, more and more pubs in Dutch city centres (e.g. Utrecht and Den Bosch) are being supplied with the sustainable ‘mini’ tank beer truck, which reduces the need for the large truck.
Heineken also focuses on reducing CO2 emissions in Dutch inland shipping in 2021, as the first customer of Zero Emission Services B.V. (ZES).
With this new electric sailing system, the brewer can transport emission-free beer from the brewery in Zoeterwoude to the port in Moerdijk.
It’s Affligem Blond and Affligem Blond 0.0% will be introduced in a new packaging form from September.
These variants are only available in the brown BNR deposit bottle. The refillable brown returnable bottles will last for years and produce seven times less CO2 emissions than one-way bottles.
This makes it the most sustainable form of packaging. The brewer expects to offer all Affligem variants in this bottle in 2021.
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