HERA 2021 Written Winner’s Interview with Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Limited
The Hong Kong ESG Reporting Awards (HERA) is a not-for-profit initiative, aiming to build trust among stakeholders and escalate the ESG reporting standards in Hong Kong, Macau, and Greater China. The HERA 2021 Forum cum Awards Presentation Ceremony was successfully held on 28th November 2021; ESGN is honoured to have invited Mr. Craig Katerberg, Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer from Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Limited, winner of the Grand Award for Carbon Neutral Award, to share their experience with and future plans on promoting corporate sustainability and carbon neutral.
- Congratulations on winning at HERA 2020. Please share your thoughts and what does that mean to the company?
At Bud APAC, we are determined to build a company that lasts, and we can only do so with a healthy environment and thriving communities. We are firmly committed to creating a better world for all our stakeholders, while also creating value for our business. Our 2025 Sustainability Goals, which align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, deliver a clear strategy and measurable, positive impact on the environment and our communities.
Winning the Carbon Neutral Award at HERA 2021 is great recognition because it recognizes what we say often – sustainability is not part of our business, IT IS our business. We will continue to focus on achieving our 2025 Sustainability Goals and bringing people together for a better world.
- What are some of your initiatives contributing to carbon neutrality?
Offsetting renewable electricity (RE) is a big part of our strategy to meet our goal of 100% RE. Increasing energy efficiencies and renewable energy usage have also been vital for us and have been a significant part of our ESG journey. We collaborate with local governments and various partners to support RE and achieve our 2025 Sustainability Goals for climate action, which is to ensure that 100% of our purchased electricity will be from renewable sources and a 25% reduction of CO2 emission across our value chain.
To date, we have three breweries operating with 100% RE in China and we recently announced our commitment for six more breweries in China to roll out RE100. Besides RE100, we have five breweries that have installed solar panels, in addition to our nine breweries across APAC.
We are also leading the way in Korea, as Korea has been one of the most regulated markets for energy and therefore the process has been slower. In August 2021, we celebrated the beginning of our journey to RE100 in Korea at our Icheon brewery with KEPCO Energy Solutions and Aeonus. We will install solar panels on all three breweries (Icheon, Gwangju and Cheongju), where each will produce 12GWh of energy per year. This is the first project in all of Korea to use on-site generated electricity, and we are proud to be pushing and leading this breakthrough within renewable electricity.
- What are the biggest challenges in striving for carbon neutral and how does it impact your operations?
Striving for carbon neutrality means influencing those around you, including our sector, our supply chains, our partners and our community. We can achieve something by ourselves, but through collaboration, we can achieve greater impact and make a huge difference.
At Bud APAC, we have been leading sustainability across the value chain through collaboration with partners on the path of fulfilling our 2025 sustainability goals. As one example, by actively sharing our RE100 strategies, Guangdong Huaxing Glass Co. Ltd., the largest glass container manufacturer in Asia by output volume, and our largest glass bottle supplier has implemented its first on-site solar project which will help cut packaging-related carbon emissions of the brewer.