
We've been reading through the sustainability reports of the world's leading beer companies and it got us thinking. Who is leading the way in innovation in the sustainability space in this industry? Is it the big beer companies with their gigantic R&D budgets? Or is it the microbreweries with their ability to design and scale up their products and processes from a relatively blank sheet of paper?
But before we attempt to answer that more difficult question, we can give you the answer to a simpler but equally important question: Which companies are currently being the most transparent in reporting their impact on the environment?
How do we separate the beer from the sludge?
To answer this question we have employed Carbon Benchmark's Transparency Rating system.
To receive our much coveted Platinum transparency rating, companies need to publicly disclose at least 90% of their GHG emissions covering Scope 1 and 2 plus the detailed sub-categories of Scope 3. Crucially, there is no other way for companies to obtain our Platinum rating!

And according to our databases, there are currently only 12 large brewing companies that have earned the Platinum accolade:



And to prove that we don't award the top rating to all large companies, below are a couple of examples of companies with ratings which are good but not great.

So now we know which companies have the good quality data, let's take a closer look at their disclosures
Below we show a comparison of two of the Platinum-rated companies: Anheuser-Busch and Asahi.

Overall, I would say there is a satisfying level of consistency in the GHG emissions disclosure profiles for these two companies with only some minor differences at the sub-category level.
As is typical for the Food & Beverage sector, Scope 3 dominates the picture with the main concentrations being in the upstream supply chain.
Our data also allows us to dig deeper into individual categories (such as for Scope 1 shown below) where we can start to establish the average and range for a whole peer group.

We can also detect some decarbonization progress in the data above (as we move from 2022 to 2023) as measured in kgCO2e per USD of revenue. Progress!
Note - If your company belongs to a different sector you can see the data for all categories and 130 different industries by clicking on the button below.
Oof! Many big banks have stated that they will only fund the top 25% most sustainable companies in each industry
Before I decided to start Carbon Benchmark Ltd, I used to head up Oliver Wyman's carbon accounting team and before that I spent many years building the credit rating systems for the world's largest banks.
Banks and regulators love lining up industry peer groups using the types of quantitative metrics shown in the charts above. You can trust me when I say that companies won't want to end up at the wrong end of the statistical "bell curve" when it comes to banks allocating funding - their can be many causes of death for a company but no company can survive long term without access to low cost funding.
It is worth noting, however, that it would be very easy for a bank to form the wrong opinion about an individual company based on the sustainability data that is currently available:
Companies might have used different assumptions and methods to calculate their environmental metrics
The companies in the same industry may differ in their business activities (e.g. one beverage company might make more soft drinks or cider while another makes more beer)
Alternatively, some companies may have made real progress against their sustainability goals and rightly deserve praise based on their improved metrics
In other words, it isn't yet possible to separate the "sustainability noise" (items 1 and 2 above) from the "sustainability signal" (item 3 above). The regulatory requirements which are coming down the pipe will no doubt help in setting standards and forcing more consistency in this regard.
So where do we think the innovation is coming from?
In short the jury is still out on which companies in each sector should be regarded as the leading lights of sustainability. However, we have concluded there are 2 good places to look:
The start-up community
The larger companies that have disclosed all of their emissions (i.e. our platinum rated companies)
Below we highlight the top 10 key learnings that we have compiled for reading through the sustainability publications of these two cohorts of the brewing industry. We will also be reaching out to these companies to invite them onto our video blog and podcast. If you have a good story to tell please get into touch with us at info@carbonbenchmark.net
Top 10 key learnings from the sustainable beer makers
Here are the key learnings from our reading of this sector:
The agricultural footprint of the upstream farmers is a major driver of the brewing industry's environmental footprint. A great deal of research is being put into more sustainable farming practices including the use of more sustainable fertilizers, pesticides and to reduce water consumption and deforestation and companies are also repurposing waste grain
Many companies are switching to more renewable energy sources for electricity, heat and steam production including the use of onsite waste-to-energy and biomass-fueled boilers
There is also a big emphasis on improved energy efficiency in energy-intensive processes (e.g. bottle cleaning and fermentation) or the use of low-energy components such as LED lighting and heat pumps
There is strong emphasis on recycling and choice of materials particularly for packaging and containers
There is a general movement towards a more smart agriculture with the brewers equipping the farmers with improve data and monitoring equipment. New software and IoT devices are being placed into the hands of farmers including the roll out of large training programs.
Many companies are employing carbon-dioxide capture in, for example, fermentation processes. These gases can then be put to good use in the supply chain of other companies that are net consumers of this good.
Better water stewardship is a big topic all on its own but can also have a positive impact in reducing a company's emissions.
Transportation and storage improvement include a reduction in air freight and migrating the road fleet to more electric/hybrid vehicles while improving the packing and energy efficiency of storage facilities.
The bars and restaurants that serve the beer are being encouraged to reduce the carbon footprint particularly of their refrigeration facilities
End consumers are being asked to reduce waste and efforts to encourage consumers to consume alcohol responsibly can also help companies to meet their broader sustainability goals by reducing overall consumption
You can browse the case study highlights from the platinum-rated companies in more detail below.
Molson Coors
Sapporo Holdings
Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Royal Unibrew
Heineken Holdings
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