Brewer Swaps Asphalt For Water
Dutch brewer Bavaria has shown it is not just its beer bottles that are green, with a new initiative designed to cut CO2 emissions, as part of the firm’s drive for even greater sustainability. Bavaria has signed a shared transportation agreement with two other leading consumer brands, Heinz and Mars, to move their products across Europe by inland waterways. The size of the waterways inEuropemakes transport by barge, a truly sustainable solution if the volumes being shipped are large enough.
Beer coming to the UK is shipped in 45 ft containers aboard river barges that head to the port of Rotterdam every day. By sharing the barge with confectionary from Mars and ketchup from Heinz, the full load ensures the environmental impact of distribution is significantly reduced for the three companies.
Bavaria UK managing director Mike Teague comments: “In recent years, Bavaria has undertaken a range of measures to reduce emissions associated with transportation. We send our beers across Europe by train and were the first brewer inEuropeto switch our distribution fleet to trucks that meet the low-emission Euro 6 standard.”
He adds: “We have to accept that the more we sell in the UK, the more we have to ship from Holland. There’s no substitute for the natural mineral water we use from the spring under the brewery, so we do everything we can to ensure our beers are sustainable. And that includes the shipping methods. From the feedback we’ve had from our customers in the UK, we know they share our approach to sustainability and they have welcomed this initiative.”
In recent years the measures taken by Bavaria have reduced CO2 emissions associated with transport by 28%. This commitment to sustainability recently won the brewery a ‘Lean and Green’ award from Connekt, a group dedicated to the development of sustainable logistics in the Netherlands and beyond.
Bavaria Beer UK is a subsidiary of Bavaria NV, the biggest family owned brewer in the Netherlands. Bavaria NV was established in 1719 and 50% of its beer is currently exported to more than 100 countries worldwide.
