What does carbon neutrality have to do with beer? This starts with Budweiser Asia Pacific Wuhan Brewery, which not only realizes 100% renewable electric brewing, but also will be the first carbon-neutral brewery in Budweiser's world.
Under the goal of "double carbon", the economy and society will transform to green and low carbon. Whether it is the mode of production of enterprises or the lifestyle of individuals, green changes will be realized. Therefore, beer, which seems to have nothing to do with carbon neutrality, as a consumer product in people's lifestyle, should also realize the transformation of green and low carbon.
In an exclusive interview with 2 1 Century Business Herald, Jane Yang Kai, vice president of purchasing and sustainable development of Budweiser in Asia-Pacific, said that Budweiser will achieve the goal of RE 100 (an initiative initiated by Climate Group to promote influential enterprises around the world to use 100% renewable energy and electricity) by 2025, which is in line with its own goal.
Jane Yang Kai, vice president of procurement and sustainable development in Budweiser Asia Pacific, said. Photos provided by interviewees.
More than 80% of green investment has a return. 2 1 century: the most important thing to achieve the goal of "double carbon" is to change the energy structure. At present, 14.2% of Budweiser's electricity in the Asia-Pacific region comes from renewable energy. When can we reach the goal of 100%? What measures will be taken?
Yang Kai: Budweiser beer must achieve the goal of RE 100 by 2025, which is consistent with our sustainable development goal in 2025, including actions to deal with climate change, water resources protection, smart agriculture and recycling and packaging, which should be completed by 2025.
In the action against climate change, we have two goals. First, the goal of RE 100 should be achieved by the end of 2025; Second, the emissions of the whole supply chain and value chain decreased by 25%, and the base year was 20 17.
14.2% doesn't seem to be particularly large, but our actions have been going on for a long time. Three factories in Wuhan, Ziyang and Kunming have achieved 100 last year. We have 1 1 factories that have completed the installation of roof photovoltaic, and there will be more RE 100 factories next year. It took us a long time to make the first rooftop photovoltaic, but under the current policy environment, it is more and more conducive to accelerating the construction of rooftop photovoltaic.
At present, we are doing two things. First, we are reducing the use of energy resources at the production end, optimizing the energy of factories, and monitoring the energy consumption of equipment in the central control room of some factories in order to use energy more rationally. When we talk about the whole sustainable development, the first thing to do is to reduce the use of energy resources.
The second is energy storage. Now the energy storage industry is developing rapidly. We actually started doing it on 20 18. Energy storage is not only to help solve the storage problem of renewable energy, but also to solve another problem, that is, the disposal of retired battery of automobile power.
We cooperated with an innovative company to transform the retired power battery into a charging unit and put it in the factory for energy storage projects. This can help our rooftop photovoltaic project. If photovoltaic power generation is particularly good, especially in some cities at noon 12, it belongs to the power grade period, and then it can be recharged and used in the afternoon peak hours. On the one hand, it has economic benefits, on the other hand, it also improves the utilization rate of photovoltaic.
2 1 century: which links are the main carbon emission links in the whole process of Budweiser beer production and sales? What is the annual emission of Budweiser beer in the Asia-Pacific region and how to reduce it?
Yang Kai: From agricultural cultivation to sales, the maximum carbon emission of Budweiser beer in the whole production and sales chain is 3. On the whole, the interval of 1+2 accounts for about 10%, and the interval of 3 accounts for 90%. Budweiser beer accounts for the largest proportion of carbon emissions in the Asia-Pacific region, accounting for about 42%.
In China, we are ahead in tackling climate change and reducing carbon emissions. We are also helping suppliers, providing them with some solutions and sharing our typical cases with them.
There are several different angles about supplier education. First of all, we should bring our advantages to them. Traditional enterprises rarely set posts related to sustainable development. Budweiser Asia Pacific has done this for a long time. Secondly, we are a multinational company with different projects in every country and region. We can learn from each other and share these experiences with suppliers. Thirdly, the factory management system operated by our company has been running at the global level of Budweiser for many years. How to reduce emissions and effectively improve production efficiency can also be shared with our suppliers.
A special case is that Huaxing Glass, one of our suppliers, is the largest glass bottle supplier in China. A year ago, we started talking to them about rooftop photovoltaic power generation. After communicating with them several times last year, they tried the first project. After they finished, they found that it had economic benefits and no adverse effects on the company. This year, they did it very quickly. Now they have completed four projects, and they can do about eight by the end of the year.
Another example is logistics. We have no logistics. Cars and trucks are suppliers' assets, but we are also using our influence to tell them what to do. At present, Budweiser Asia Pacific has about 270 green logistics vehicles in China, mainly LNG, more than 30 electric heavy trucks and 5 hydrogen trucks (65,438+0 heavy trucks and 4 light trucks). This is the first time that we have a hydrogen fuel truck on a global scale.
We are an industry that focuses on logistics and transportation. Wine is a liquid, so endurance is very important. As a result, electric vehicles cannot be put on a large scale, because the power battery occupies a large weight and will lose its carrying capacity. We have cooperation agreements with automobile manufacturers, such as developing and using electric heavy trucks with BYD. We will try our best to establish good relations with suppliers and dealers, so that BYD will be more willing to cooperate with some of our requirements and improve the vehicle counterweight.
2 1 century: There are already five hydrogen trucks in your logistics transportation. What do you think of the application prospect of hydrogen energy?
Yang Kai: I am very optimistic about the future of hydrogen energy, but hydrogen refueling station is the biggest problem, which requires a lot of infrastructure investment. It is not a problem that an enterprise can solve, and it needs to be solved at the industry level or the government level. In long-distance transportation, hydrogen energy is definitely a future direction, because electric trucks have a big problem, that is, distance limitation. Now the normal distance is about 250-300 kilometers, and it takes time to charge. So I think short-distance transportation by electric trucks is a development direction, but for long-distance transportation, hydrogen trucks are a development direction.
2 1 century: What is your annual expenditure on climate change and emission reduction? What innovative experience do you have in energy saving and carbon reduction technology or management?
Yang Kai: We invest millions of dollars every year, mainly in several directions. The first is direct equipment investment, which is the most common in enterprises, whether it is to improve production efficiency, energy efficiency or upgrading.
The second is the energy service agreement, which is a long-term cooperation with suppliers in the form of services. Traffic is one of them. When we ask suppliers to invest in electric trucks, we will extend the original one-year contract to two to three years, so that suppliers can share the cost. Photovoltaic is the most common and earliest project. It's invested by the supplier, and we have to pay 15, 20, 25 years' electricity bill.
The third is the biomass efficient steam engine made in Wuhan. As far as we know, it is the first one in China, and its thermal efficiency exceeds 107%.
In order to achieve carbon neutrality, we still have a lot of investment to do. These three aspects of investment have been done, but we will not simply invest money, but will calculate the return, taking into account economic interests and sustainable development. If there is no return on investment, there is no way to last long. At present, photovoltaic is the most common profitable investment, which is why many of our enterprises are willing to do photovoltaic on a large scale.
In addition, in the large-scale sustainable development, more than 80% of our investment has a return, and the cycle varies from 2 years to 5 years. Whether it is intelligent agriculture, packaging replacement or climate change, there are models that can calculate the return on investment. The only thing that needs long-term investment is water resources protection.
Quantifying the impact of biodiversity loss on business is a difficult problem in 2 1 century: beer production is inseparable from water and agriculture, which are closely related to biodiversity. Have you considered the impact of biodiversity loss on income or business?
Yang Kai: Agriculture and water are very important for Budweiser beer. Agriculture can provide the best raw materials for brewing beer. Brewing beer should have enough water and good water quality. Leaving agriculture and water means opening our business itself to talk about problems.
Some people will question, what does a brewing enterprise do with biodiversity? We are not only packaging and logistics, but there are actually more places related to biodiversity and the environment behind the products. We often say that beer is a natural product, and it is meaningless to talk about beer without nature. Therefore, we feel that our business is closely related to biodiversity, and we need to take action to protect biodiversity.
2 1 century: the loss of biodiversity will change the soil structure and water quality. Will it affect the taste and quality of beer?
Yang Kai: Frankly speaking, it is difficult to quantify. We know that raw materials and water quality have an influence on the taste and color of beer, but it is difficult to calculate how big the influence is and what factors affect it.
Due to soil quality problems, including low soil organic carbon and salinization, our barley growers may face low yield. We cooperate with growers to conduct soil tests to help farmers understand and improve soil quality. According to the soil test results, the team made a nutrient management plan and a crop rotation plan.
In terms of water quality, no matter which factory we have, we have a water treatment system. Of course, if the water quality is good, the pretreatment is also very simple. If the water quality is poor, the pretreatment process will be very long, and more energy and money will be invested.
Therefore, the impact of biodiversity or the whole environment on us is very obvious, but it is still difficult to quantify. How to quantify the impact of biodiversity loss on business, I think this is a problem that many enterprises are facing at present.
2 1 century: how will Budweiser participate in biodiversity conservation in the future? What are the actual cases?
Yang Kai: Water and biodiversity are closely related. In areas with severe water shortage, especially in China, the most populous country in the world, we are committed to ensuring the supply and quality of water resources. In China, we started the "Community Backwater Plan" to transport our reclaimed water (the treated sewage reaches the national standard) to the community for road cleaning, greening and landscape lakes. This can increase the recycling of water and help reduce the consumption of fresh water in our community. The reclaimed water landscape has promoted the reproduction of local animals and plants and improved the ecological environment.
In order to meet the water risk challenges faced by local production and operation, we classify each brewery according to the level of "extremely high risk" to "low risk", and there is no "extremely high risk" area in the whole Asia-Pacific region. In India, the water pressure is relatively high. In some areas with high water use risk, we have assessed that we will cooperate more with communities and farmers to build dams, adjust dry season and rainy season, or as irrigation. We will cooperate with local governments and communities to subdivide project investment. We hope that after the project is put into operation, someone will manage and maintain it, and more stakeholders will gather together. Under the supervision of non-governmental organizations and the management of the government, we will continue to promote this project instead of putting it down and ending it. There will be another project next year, which is unsustainable.
Our agricultural projects in China are all in cooperation with Jiangsu Agricultural Reclamation, and there are many farmers in contact with the Agricultural Reclamation. The cooperation project with Budweiser covers four or five thousand households, and the scale will be very large. In the process of cooperation, we will give farmers some technical support and suggestions, including land use efficiency, sustainable sowing, breeding and harvesting, as well as climate observation and the use of large agricultural machinery.
265438+20th century: In July this year, you signed a $500 million green loan with Bank of China and others. Why are you doing this? What effect will it bring to emission reduction?
Yang Kai: This green loan is the concept of financing for sustainable development. First, we don't need this fund urgently now, but to show our understanding of the importance of sustainable development, because only when it is related to finance will people feel that you are doing it seriously, not saying a slogan.
Secondly, why should this matter be linked to the economy? Because if we can't achieve the promised goal, we will have to pay more money. This is also a very serious external display of our attitude towards sustainable development.
Our company has a slogan, sustainable development is the enterprise itself. Sustainable development is not a part of business, but business itself. From CEO to every employee, this concept is being talked about. In fact, we would rather tell you what we are doing than simply say what we want to do.
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