Brewer swaps asphalt for water
Dutch brewer Bavaria has shown it’s not just its beer bottles that are green, with a new initiative designed to cut CO2 emissions as part of the firm’s drive for even greater sustainability. Bavaria has signed a shared transportation agreement with Heinz and Mars, to move their products across Europe by inland waterways.
Beer to the UK is shipped in 45ft containers aboard river barges that head to the port of Rotterdam every day. By sharing the barge with confectionary from Mars and ketchup from Heinz, the full load ensures the environmental impact of distribution is significantly reduced for the three companies.
Bavaria UK Managing Director Mike Teague commented:
“In recent years, Bavaria has undertaken a range of measures to reduce emissions associated with transportation. We send our beers across Europe by train and were the first brewer in Europe to switch our distribution fleet to trucks that meet the low-emission Euro 6 standard.
“Hopefully we will see other European brewers and manufacturers follow our lead and start shipping to Rotterdam by barge for their global exports.”
In recent years the measures taken by Bavaria have reduced transport CO2 emissions by 28%. This commitment to sustainability recently won the brewery a ‘Lean and Green’ award from Connekt, a group dedicated to the development of sustainable logistics in the Netherlands and beyond.
