C&C Group has today announced its plans to invest €16 million in a sustainability drive for its brand Tennent’s Lager.
The investment 'enables the introduction' of pioneering green-technology and strategic partnerships, the drinks giant said.
Martin Doogan, Group Engineering Manager at C&C, Tennent’s parent company, commented that this activity represents a sizeable – and enduring – investment in the future.
The sustainability plans as outlined by the brewer include the following:
Local sourcing and waste management
Over many decades, Tennent’s has built strong relationships with local producers of its ingredients.
Made from 100% Scottish barley, sourced from almost 100 farmers at a cost of £7.5m per annum, the beer’s by-products are then entirely recycled for use as animal feed or organic compost, helping Wellpark to send zero waste to landfill, which it has done since 2014.
Out of single-use plastics by 2021
Tennent’s will be out of single-use plastic in its packaging by 2021, eliminating 150 tonnes of plastic from the environment per annum.
rom next Spring, the brand’s larger canned product formats will use cardboard packaging as an alternative to hi-cone rings and shrink-wrap.
Smaller packs will follow later in the year with a further pledge to be out of all plastic by 2025.
A anaerobic digestion plant
A newly built water treatment plant – otherwise known as anaerobic digestion – is now operational at Tennent’s Wellpark home. This allows for the on-site treatment of wastewater generated as a by-product of brewing.
A first for a Scottish brewery, the facility further improves the quality of wastewater whilst also generating bio-gas, which is then used to help heat the brewery.
Reducing energy drawn from the national grid, the bio-gas supports 5% of Wellpark’s energy needs.
Carbon neutral by 2025
A new carbon-capture facility will also break ground at Wellpark by the end of 2019, saving the equivalent of 27,000 flights to London from Glasgow each year in Co2.
The business is investigating other carbon-offset innovation and is committed to being net carbon zero by 2025.
“It’s a leap in the right direction – but we’re not complacent and we’re not finished," Doogan added.
"We will continue to seek out ways to minimise our environmental impact across our entire business, from our transport fleet, to international deliveries."
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