C02-Neutral
Brewery
World of Heineken 42 summer 2010
"Sorghum will grow in very dry, almost arid
conditions. That means we can use local
suppliers rather than shipping in barley from
elsewhere," says Herman.
EXCEEDING C02 REDUCTION TARGETS
Paul Bruijn, a safety, health and environment
specialist with Heineken Supply Chain
Service has a particular interest in carbon
footprinting. "The emission of C02 related to
energy use throughout the Total Value Chain
also has to be taken into consideration," he
explains. "With so many breweries worldwide
in a variety of climatic - and therefore
temperature - conditions, it is to be
expected that there is an equally wide variety
of energy consumption. But our target for
2020 is to have reduced our average energy
consumption from our 2008 levels by 30%. In
fact, over 10% of our breweries are already
beating their 2020 target.
"One of the locations where the brewery
teams have performed very well is Poland.
To a certain extent, this has historical roots.
In the past, their power supply was not
terribly reliable and they became adept at
monitoring their usage."
"Heineken now has much better energy
monitoring systems in place," Herman
suggests, "with the most significant
reductions in energy consumption coming
from those breweries that monitor usage
on a daily basis. It's no good measuring your
energy use every three months. If you have
a problem, you need to know much quicker
than that, so you can act immediately.
"Once all measures have been taken to
reduce the amount of fossil fuel-produced
energy we use, and actions are in place to
make sure this energy is used as efficiently
as possible, for example by installing heat
exchange units, then it's also important
to look at how we source our energy. By
using sources like wind, solar, biomass and
biogas - all of which are carbon-neutral -
the amount by which we can reduce C02
emissions is significant. We've set ourselves
the challenging target of 40% C02 reduction
in our breweries by 2020.
"Buying in 'green' energy from energy
companies doesn't necessarily increase the
amount of renewable energy produced in the
world, therefore a major part of our strategy
will be producing additional renewable
energy from our own resources. For
example, in one of our Austrian breweries
we're looking at trialling solar thermal energy
to provide the heat we need for brewing.
Some of our existing sites are particularly
suitable for wind energy, so we're working
together with an energy company to install
our own wind turbines. I anticipate that quite
a few of our breweries will be C02-neutral
by 2020, with some of them potentially
supplying surplus energy from our own
renewable sources back to the grid."
The Göss Brewery in Austria has set itself
an ambitious goal: to become the first
'green' brewery in Europe. In 2008, the
brewery launched a project which would
change the thermal energy supply in such
a way that no C02 emissions are released
during the brewing process. The aim is to
make the brewery C02-neutral by the end
of 2010. The technology involved in the
project creates closed cycles of energy
at the brewery, using a variety of 'green'
energy sources.
"The Göss Brewery already uses innovative
energy concepts, such as biogas from
brewing grains and waste water from our
treatment plant," explains Harald Raidl,
Master Brewer. "With this project, we're
taking our commitment to the environment
a step further by increasing our use
of these energy concepts, as well as
introducing the use of new 'green' energy
sources."
These sources include solar energy and
'green' fuel for the solid matter furnace,
including wood, waste labels and dried
fermentation residue. In addition,
the project will involve optimising the
brewery's energy flows and reducing its
overall energy consumption.
This pioneering project has caught the
eye of scientists, who are keen to find
ways of implementing the innovative
energy concepts in operation at the Göss
Brewery in other Austrian breweries. A set
of'green' guidelines for Heineken's other
breweries is also being produced.
"The Göss Brewery is situated in a beautiful
environment, so it is very clear to us that
we have a responsibility to protect the
natural world," adds Harald. "We're hoping
our pioneering 'green' brewery becomes
best practice wherever feasible."
Heineken's breweries in Poland lead the way
in energy consumption monitoring