Environmental

On the path to net-zero impact

As the world faces complex issues regarding climate change, loss of biodiversity, water scarcity, and diminishing natural resources, we are committed to meet these challenges and to raise the bar on our environmental ambitions.

Our achievements so far:

Wastewater Treatment

91%

91% of our wastewater was treated in 2020

Water Consumption

7.9% Reduction

In water consumption (hl/hl) in our breweries since 2018

Zero Waste

94%

Waste diverted from landfill sites across our brewery locations

Our Focus Areas

Going forward into this Decade of Action, our Environmental focus areas include:

Carbon Neutrality.
Healthy Watersheds.
Circularity.

Carbon Neutrality

Climate change is one of the biggest global threats to humanity and it will shape the way we operate, now and in the coming decades.

As far back as 2018, we committed to considerably increase renewable energy in production, including renewable electricity (e.g. solar), and renewable thermal energy (from biogas, waste heat recovery, and sustainable biomass).

We have refreshed and set ambitious targets to achieve

Net Zero Emissions in Production by 2030 – by maximizing energy efficiency and renewable energy use.
Carbon Neutral in our value chain by 2040 – by working in close partnership with our suppliers and partners, we aim to achieve carbon neutrality across our value chain.

This means we need to further reduce emissions through energy efficiency, and accelerate our transition to renewable energy.

Our Net Zero flagship project has been the 663.6 kW peak Solar Power Plant installed at our Ibadan Brewery. Commissioned in May 2021, the plant is the first of it’s kind in Nigeria, providing approximately 800,000kWh solar electricity per annum, and putting us well on our way to Carbon Neutrality.

Thanks to the Ibadan Brewery Solar Power Plant, we can confidnetly say that at least 8million litres of our beer is brewed by the sun.

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Aba Brewery Waste Water Treatment Plant

We are also using renewable biogas generated from our waste water treatment plants to power our boilers. The biogas, similar to natural gas, allows us to have a reduced reliance on fossil fuels, and avoid harmful CO₂ emissions that contribute to climate change.

With the potential to provide up to 10-15% of our brewery’s process heat demand, we get to save some 600 tonnes of CO₂ a year.

Ibadan Brewery Solar plant

Healthy Watersheds

In many parts of the world, water is becoming a scarce resource, Nigeria not excluded. Therefore, with water being critical to life and our brewing processes, it is naturally central to our environmental commitments.

Since the 2019 launch of our 2030 water strategy – ‘Every Drop’, we have worked hard to reduce our water consumption across all our sites, and ensured to treat our wastewater in all our brewery sites before we return it to nature.

Going forward, we have strengthened our commitments towards Healthy Watersheds to:

2023

Treat 100% waste water

2030

Fully Balance Water used in our products in water-stressed areas, Maximise water reuse and recycling in water-stressed areas. Reduce water intake.

Healthy Watersheds entails not only what we do internally through Water Efficiency and effective Wastewater Management, but also what we do beyond our brewery gates through Water Stewardship and Water Circularity.

Going forward, we have strengthened our commitments towards Healthy Watersheds to:

We have invested heavily in wastewater treatment plants across all our production sites, ensuring we meet strict effluent treatment requirements. Our water is treated to such a standard that it is certified safe to be discharged back to nature.

To ensure the integrity of the watershed of the water stressed areas in which we operate, we have partenered with the Ogun State Ministry of Forestry and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), to reforest the Olokemeji Forest Reserve which had suffered a loss of trees over the years. We have committed over the next 10 years, to reforest 500 hectares of land in the Reserve. We will be spending N500 million to plant 600,000 trees, using species that are indigenous to the area.

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Maximize Circularity

With a fast-growing population, comes rapidly increasing demands for raw materials, thus putting additional pressure on the environment and eco-systems. To ensure continuity of food, water, and prosperity in 2050, we all need to switch from a linear to a circular economy. In other words, the transition from a “take-make-waste” to a “reduce-reuse-recycle” model.

Our ambition is to maximize the circularity of our products and give a second life to our input and output materials.
We are already doing a lot on the topic, for example, reusing spent grains for animal feed; recovering biogas and organic fertilizer through our wastewater treatment processes; recycling water within our breweries for use in non-product applications.
Working with our supply chain partners, our glass and aluminum can packaging materials are all 100% recycled. We have made space in our breweries to consolidate scrap metals, plastics, paper, and cardboard, which are all sent for recycling.
These circular practices amongst other waste management efforts saw us closeout 2020 with 4 sites Landfill free, and 94% of our total production waste diverted from landfills.
We realize we still have a way to get completely circular, and that is why we have committed to sending Zero Waste to landfills across all our production sites by 2025, and close material loops throughout our value chain.

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We are also a proud member of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA), collaborating with industry to amplify our existing recycling efforts, as well as structure systems to support the collection and recycling of post-consumer waste.

The key focus being:

To reduce the environmental impacts of PET plastic bottles by introducing a sustainable recycling system.
To improve knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours towards PET recycling and the impacts of plastic waste on the environment.

We have also laid the foundation for the final link in the chain: the development of recycling capacity on our own premises. In July 2021, we launched The NB Recycles project, an in-house recycling project using a product take-back/buy-back system, to compliment external waste retrieval initiatives, raise awareness, and encourage employee engagement.

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Our Publications

We document our every action to inspire others. Read more about how we have been changing the world.

View our publications

Download our 2030 Strategy Booklet

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Download our 2030 Commitments Onepager

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On the path to net zero impact

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Our ambitions and targets for this Decade of Action are in line with the benchmarks set by the UN Global Compact and we are determined to contribute to the UN SDGs to protect the planet, ensure prosperity and end poverty for all.