“The sun is the new secret ingredient of the HEINEKEN family beers.”
PR / Amsterdam (October, 2020) – The sun is the new secret ingredient of Cruzcampo, Amstel and Heineken® beers.
At HEINEKEN, sustainability is an essential element of our corporate culture and a key driver of our success. Our business carries with it a responsibility that goes beyond profitability and efficiency. That is why HEINEKEN Spain integrates sustainability into our business model through the ’Brewing a Better World’ strategy, which focuses on three key pillars: respect for people, positive contribution to local communities and protection of the environment.
Our strategy includes six areas of action aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and uses the power of our brands to promote positive change in our environment. In other words, we work to produce beers that the world, people and the environment like.
The fight against climate change – one of the most important environmental challenges of this century – is the focus of much of our efforts. At HEINEKEN Spain we are fully aware that our health depends on the health of the planet and therefore its preservation is essential to ensure the continuity of global economic development and the well-being of all people. Thus, through initiatives such as our Drop the C, our CO2 reduction program, we are constantly working to become the first “zero emissions” brewery in Spain, an ambitious challenge that we will achieve thanks to our firm commitment to renewable energies, an area of action that will undoubtedly play a leading role in economic recovery.
Within this framework, HEINEKEN Spain has signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Iberdrola, which guarantees the supply of green electricity to our four factories in Spain and to our offices. Consequently, all our beers will be produced with solar energy, making us the first brewery in Spain to produce all its products with 100% renewable electricity.
This initiative reaffirms our commitment to sustainability, as well as our leadership position in the industry by promoting the use of renewable energies in Spain. Once all the electrical requirements of our breweries have been met, we will replace our existing gas boilers with biomass ones to be able to brew only with renewable energy by 2023. The alliance between both companies has made possible the construction of a new photovoltaic plant in El Andévalo (Huelva), which will be used exclusively to produce all our beers.
“The sun is the new secret ingredient of the HEINEKEN family beers. Our beers, brewed with the power of the sun, contribute to regenerating the environment by tapping into a source of natural wealth that promises millions of years of zero emissions. And an essential element of the culture, character and warmth of the social life of the Spanish people. Because we all win when we join the fight against climate change: nature wins and the economy wins.”Guillaume Duverdier, Managing Director HEINEKEN Spain
The ingredient, which characterizes the Spanish culture, character and warmth of Spanish people will now also be used to brew the country’s beloved Cruzcampo, Amstel and Heineken®. The sun, the natural capital which offers 600 times the energy that Spain consumes, will prevent the emission of 15,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, the equivalent produced by thousands homes (or equivalent to 70 times the weight of the Statue of Liberty).
The brand new 100-hectare photovoltaic plant, as large as 270 football pitches, has been built exclusively for HEINEKEN Spain to use. This will make all of our facilities, our four breweries and our offices in Spain plugged into the green grid. The power of the sun will not only power all of our operations, or the equivalent of 4,200 million beers, but it will also empower our employees to continue Brewing a Better World in achieving our goal of becoming a zero emission brewery by 2023 and becoming the greenest brewery in Spain.
At HEINEKEN we want to drive a real change towards renewable energies in all regions where we operate. We are currently carrying out 29 renewable energy projects around the world, focused on harnessing wind and solar energy, biomass and biogas. In addition, we already have carbon-neutral factories in Göss and Schladming (Austria), facilities biomass on site in Sampang Agung (Indonesia), a solar installation in Kudenda (Nigeria) and four PPAs outside of the facilities to feed multiple factories and stores in Mexico. Find our more about our Global Sustainability Story here.
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