Climate change is one of the biggest risks facing the world today. As part of a global company, it’s our responsibility to work towards national and worldwide targets, by lowering greenhouse gas emissions across our entire business. In 2018, DB re-confirmed its commitment to transitioning to a low carbon economy by joining the Climate Leaders Coalition, a group of over 80 businesses that have committed to taking voluntary action on climate change.
Our carbon footprint
DB’s carbon footprint in 2018 was 9,846 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) or 7.58 kg CO2e per hectolitre of beer and cider produced. Our greenhouse gas emissions come mainly from natural gas, electricity in our breweries, purchased steam, and fuel used by our fleet.
| Greenhouse Gas Emissions | CO2e (tonnes) 2018 |
|---|---|
| Scope 1 | 5,046 |
| Scope 2 | 4,800 |
Our approach
We monitor our emissions and have programmes in place to help lower them, like smarter travel, energy efficiency, shifting to renewable energy sources and waste reduction. We continue to focus on improving the efficiency of our systems, and while some gains are still being made, we’re approaching the technological and efficiency limits of our existing plant and equipment. With this in mind, we’re setting up for the next major step change, which will involve investment in renewable thermal energy in production.
Our key targets and performance
We currently use the measure of carbon intensity per unit of production to track our carbon emissions performance – kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents per hectolitre (100 litres) of production. Through a range of infrastructure investments, energy efficiency initiatives and process modifications, we have reduced our total carbon emissions in production by 47% when compared to our 2008 baseline. Eliminating waste to landfill remains a priority and we currently divert over 96% of all waste from landfill through recycling or reuse. This is a slight decrease from last year due to the China National Sword Policy, which has meant that certain plastics used in production are no longer recyclable.
Looking outside of production, we have reduced carbon emissions from cooling by 52% since 2017 through our ‘green fridge’ programme. We also achieved a 6.5% reduction in carbon emissions from our glass bottles between 2015 and 2018, by working with our suppliers to adjust the weight while retaining their quality and robustness. The implementation of telemetry devices in our fleet vehicles in 2018 is now complete and we will monitor and measure any fuel efficiencies gained from installing these devices.
We continue to test and promote circular economy concepts through our DB Export brand, and in 2018, we produced 3,000 litres of ethanol for our DB Export Brewtroleum biofuel. We also continue to produce DB Export Beer Bottle Sand, which was used in major construction and roading projects such as the new Queenstown Airport runway with Downer. Over 300 tonnes of DB Export Beer Bottle Sand has been used to date.
| 2020 target | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions (tonnes) | 9764 | 9,846 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Carbon emissions in production (kg CO2 eq / hl)* | 4.5 | 4.88 | 4.9 | 5 | 5.3 |
| Carbon emission reduction in production (kg CO2 eq / hl) (2008 baseline)* | 40% | 47% | 47% | 46% | 38% |
| Thermal energy use (GJ)* | n/a | 74,416 | 70,088 | 71,164 | 74,076 |
| Total energy use (thermal & electricity) (GJ)* | n/a | 119,136 | 113,305 | 108,274 | 100,043 |
| Energy intensity (MJ / hl)* | 83.4 | 91.15 | 91.7 | 92.7 | 97.9 |
| Thermal energy intensity (MJ / hl)* | 51 | 57.66 | 57.0 | 56.9 | 60.6 |
| Electric energy intensity (kWh / hl)* | 9.0 | 9.62 | 9.7 | 9.9 | 10.4 |
| Waste produced (Tonnes)* | n/a | 16,296 | 15,066 | 16,166 | 15,841 |
| Waste diversion rate* | 98% | 96.15% | 97% | 96% | 95% |
* Our energy consumption and waste reporting data includes our three main production sites: Waitemata Brewery in Auckland, DB Draught Brewery in Timaru and Redwood Cidery in Nelson. The reporting scope includes: purchased thermal and electrical energy consumption in production and forklift LPG gas usage.
Looking ahead
We’ve been developing a new carbon reduction roadmap through to 2030. Our new programme encompasses emissions that occur across all of our sites and production units and aims to systematically reduce emissions across our business. We’ve set science based targets for our scope 1 and 2 emissions. Our initial focus will be on reducing emissions by 50% by 2030 (against a 2018 baseline). This will be achieved through investment in renewable energy technologies, transitioning our fleet to electric vehicles, swapping our LPG forklifts to electric forklifts, and reducing refrigerant losses to zero. We’ll also be developing targets for our scope 3 emissions across packaging and distribution. It’s a challenging plan with ambitious targets for 2030 that will require open collaboration and innovation.
