There are dates that are doubly powerful. Like today, February 14, when love (Valentine’s Day) and energy (on World Day) are celebrated. Rarely are these two concepts close or related to each other. In the case of HEINEKEN, they are not only connected, but constitute a special and unique pairing. On this day, the beer group becomes an exponent of the love for energy. That is why its global strategy Delivering a Better World puts sustainability at the center of its business. And also in every moment of enjoyment.
There is no shortage of beer from HEINEKEN Spain brands, such as Amstel, El Águila, Cruzcampo or Heineken® itself, in the shared moments, especially to toast on this important day. There is also no shortage of chin-chin for that better world that the brewery proposes, implicit in each of the beers it makes. To achieve this, its activity is based on three pillars: environmental, social and responsibility, which guide the company towards a lower impact on the environment, an inclusive, fair and equitable world, and moderation and responsible consumption. A declaration of love to the planet and the people who inhabit it. And with note.
In 2020 HEINEKEN Spain became the first Spanish brewery to brew all of its beers and cider exclusively with fully renewable electricity. Or, what is the same, more than 4.2 billion beers a year from brands such as Cruzcampo, El Águila, Amstel, Heineken®.
HEINEKEN’s commitment to sustainability arose more than two decades ago, when it began to work on it through local initiatives. Setting short and long-term objectives and, now, with an ambitious roadmap for 2025 that is reflected in the Decidedly HEINEKEN agenda and is based on two main objectives in energy matters: using 100% renewable energy in production, and reduce CO2 emissions by 30% in the value chain, advancing on the path to being net zero in 2040.
And, as there is no better way than to set an example, HEINEKEN Spain has started working in its own home, its factories, with the aim of using only renewable energy in production in 2025. Today, 50% of the energy it uses In its factories it is already of renewable origin thanks to the solar thermal plants in Seville and Valencia (soon to be inaugurated), the photovoltaic plant in El Andévalo (Huelva), the biomass boiler in Jaén and the biogas that it produces in its four factories. By the end of 2024, with solar thermal plants at full capacity, he expects this figure to reach 62%.
All of these initiatives also contribute to HEINEKEN’s global ambition to be net zero across its entire value chain by 2040, a global goal that has recently been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which has made the group the first brewery in the world to surpass this milestone, which in Spain it reinforces to reduce emissions by 30% by 2025. The company is on the right track and, by the end of this year, it estimates that it will have already achieved a decrease in 24% thanks to the initiatives it develops in agriculture, packaging and logistics.
HEINEKEN maintains an idyll with the sun. In a world in which it is estimated that a third of global energy demand is due to industry, in which almost 75% of it corresponds to processes that cannot be solved with electricity since they require high temperatures (heat) to To be able to be carried out, one of the biggest challenges in the fight against the climate crisis is to make this demand for thermal energy stop depending on fossil fuels. Here, solar thermal energy, which uses the sun as raw material (a renewable, unlimited and emission-free source of energy), is revealed as a perfect ally to achieve this. And at HEINEKEN Spain they have known how to take advantage of it.
Today, the company has in Seville the largest CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) plant of this type in all of Europe. A facility that has been built on the factory grounds for self-consumption. Developed together with ENGIE Spain, it is the largest solar thermal plant for industrial use in Europe. Thanks to its activity, the factory aims to reduce its fossil gas consumption by more than 60% and will operate with 84% renewable energy (electrical and thermal) at the end of 2024, when it is at full capacity. In addition, it will help the brewery reduce its carbon footprint by almost 7,000 tons of CO2e per year (a weight equivalent to that of the Eiffel Tower).
The brewery has a second solar thermal plant, which will be inaugurated soon, in Quart de Poblet (Valencia) and which has been developed in collaboration with CSIN (Solatom Indertec Company, a joint venture formed by two Valencian companies of reference in renewable energy projects. ). The installation stands out for its simplicity and pioneering character, as it is based on cutting-edge technology created in Valencia that challenges the Spanish solar thermal tradition by being able to be used in solar fields of any size.
100% of the water that goes to the factory’s treatment plant is returned to the environment, free of waste. And, in this purification process, natural biogas is generated that is used for the cogeneration of electrical energy in microturbines installed in 2022. This has made it possible to reduce energy consumption in these facilities by 80% and that of the facility itself by 3%. factory.
Already in Jaén, HEINEKEN turned its factory in 2021 into a role model for the brewing industry in our country by being the first that works exclusively with renewable energy, that is, with 30% of electricity from solar origin and 70% from thermal energy from biomass.
