Latest news with #BIER
Associated Press
15-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Spring Forward: BIER's Collective Progress on Climate, Water, and Circularity
As spring awakens across the Northern Hemisphere and the season turns toward growth, so too does BIER's momentum as a coalition. BIER members began 2025 with a renewed commitment to agility, collaboration, and measurable progress across its five core pillars: water, climate, reporting, circularity, and nature/biodiversity. From leadership transitions to groundbreaking innovation, this quarter marks a powerful beginning and a strategic alignment with BIER's long-term vision. The following highlights showcase the work and impact of BIER members during the first quarter of 2025. Leadership in Action: BIER's Chair and Co-Chair for 2025 Strategic leadership remains central to BIER's ability to navigate complexity and accelerate progress. In 2025, that leadership is embodied by two individuals deeply committed to collaboration and impact. Meet Nicolas Clerget, 2025 BIER Chair As the global sustainability landscape becomes more complex, strong and pragmatic leadership is critical. Nicolas Clerget of The HEINEKEN Company brings strategic clarity and deep climate expertise to his role as 2025 BIER Chair, reinforcing our mission to drive collective impact across the beverage industry. 'BIER brings together the beverage industry's collective expertise to create shared value. That spirit is rare and incredibly powerful.' – Nicolas Clerget Meet David Grant, 2025 BIER Co-Chair David Grant of PepsiCo joins as Co-Chair, bringing a systems-based perspective to sustainability. His leadership ensures that BIER remains agile and responsive as members tackle interconnected challenges in water, climate, and biodiversity. 'Sustainability is not linear—it's interconnected. That integrated perspective will help us prioritize effectively while staying adaptable.' – David Grant GHG Emissions Sector Guidance: Version 4.3 As part of its commitment to driving standardized, science-aligned climate action, BIER released Version 4.3 of the Beverage Industry Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Sector Guidance —a crucial resource for beverage companies seeking to improve their emissions accounting and disclosure practices. This latest update reflects BIER's role in aligning the industry with evolving global standards while ensuring practical applicability across value chains. Version 4.3 introduces several key refinements, including: SBTiISSBCSRD Version 4.3 builds on the globally recognized foundation established in earlier versions and supports consistent, transparent reporting that drives progress toward net-zero commitments and science-based targets. BIER's Cool Challenge 2025 Building on the momentum of the GHG Emissions Sector Guidance: Version 4.3, BIER continues to spotlight practical pathways to decarbonization across the value chain. One such opportunity lies in an often-overlooked emissions source: refrigeration. Revolutionizing commercial refrigeration for chilled beverages—this was the mission with the 2025 Cool Challenge, and the results spoke volumes. The competition highlighted innovation in energy efficiency, circularity, and sustainable design, underscoring the crucial role of refrigeration manufacturers and component suppliers in climate-smart transformation. Congratulations to the 2025 Cool Challenge Winners: ImberaMetalfrio SolutionsLEAF PolyolCoolR GroupHuayi Compressor Co., Ltd This wasn't just a competition; it was a call to action. From legislative alignment to total cost of ownership insights, the Cool Challenge sparked real momentum that will ripple across the industry for years to come. Regulatory Roundup: Tracking Global Shifts in Sustainability Reporting BIER's Regulatory Roundup is a member-only forum providing quarterly updates on emerging ESG reporting regulations through a dedicated newsletter and virtual sessions. These updates spotlight key changes to existing and upcoming regulations, best practices, and opportunities for member input. In BIER's latest session, members explored the EU's Omnibus package, updates to CSRD, CSDDD, and the EU Taxonomy, alongside global alignment efforts under ISSB/IFRS. As jurisdictions move from voluntary to mandatory frameworks, BIER members continue to collaborate on how best to adapt internal systems, prioritize data strategies, and manage resources efficiently. These exchanges are a hallmark of the BIER experience—shared intelligence for complex times. Ad Hoc Sessions BIER's Ad Hoc Sessions provide a flexible, discussion-driven platform designed to address urgent or emerging issues relevant to the beverage industry. These member-only virtual gatherings enable BIER members to exchange ideas and collaboratively solve problems in response to new developments and industry challenges. By focusing on timely topics, these sessions support rapid knowledge sharing and actionable strategies to sustain BIER's leadership in environmental stewardship. In February, BIER convened members from seven global beverage companies for an Ad Hoc Session focused on Climate Transition Plans, exploring the role not just for compliance, but for competitive advantage. Key takeaways included: TPTFTCFD The conversation reinforced that climate transition planning is no longer optional—it's a strategic imperative. In April, BIER members gathered to address the sweeping changes under the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)—a legislative shift redefining how packaging is designed, labeled, reused, and regulated. Key insights included: BIER's role in facilitating peer insight and readiness in this evolving landscape remains a cornerstone of its impact. Looking Ahead: What Spring Growth Means for BIER From energizing leadership to boundary-pushing innovation and complex regulatory shifts, BIER's first quarter of 2025 reflects a coalition in action. The BIER Spring Member Meeting, taking place from May 20 to 22, 2025, in Seville, Spain, and graciously hosted by BIER member Heineken, continues to build on this strong foundation, propelling the coalition forward with accelerated momentum well into the second quarter of 2025. This in-person gathering will bring together sustainability leaders from across the global beverage industry to explore a range of technical topics, including: As BIER members convene in Seville, the emphasis remains on collaborative problem-solving and technical excellence, hallmarks of BIER's approach. BIER values its membership base, which reflects the diversity and expertise of the global beverage industry, drawing insights from companies across the entire value chain. From brewers and distillers to non-alcoholic beverage producers, BIER members bring deep knowledge and unwavering commitment to solving the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. As such, when we work together, we go further. These cross-sector partnerships not only advance technical progress but also raise stakeholder awareness, build trust with consumers, and promote sustainable solutions that benefit both the industry and the environment. As the rest of 2025 unfolds, the energy from the previous quarters sets the tone: one of momentum, innovation, and purposeful collaboration. We look forward to what's next—and to continuing this shared journey toward a more sustainable beverage sector. Visit 3BL Media to see more multimedia and stories from Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable
Associated Press
20-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
BIER Member Spotlight: Justin Merrell
Name: Justin Merrell | Group Sustainability Director Welcome to our series aimed at spotlighting the individual leaders within BIER member companies and stakeholder organizations. Learn how these practitioners and their companies are addressing pressing challenges around water, energy, agriculture, and climate change, and what inspires each of them to advance environmental sustainability in the beverage sector and collectively, overall. Briefly describe your role and responsibilities and how long you have worked with your company. My current role is Group Sustainability Director for LION. LION operates primarily in Australia, but we are also the largest brewer in New Zealand. In addition, we have a significant craft beer presence in the United States, including New Belgium Brewery and Bell's Brewery. Our US craft beer network spans four operational sites: Bell's Brewery in Michigan; New Belgium's breweries in Fort Collins, Colorado; Asheville, North Carolina; and our newest site in Daleville, Virginia. Beyond brewing, we also operate wineries on the west coast and New Zealand. I've been with LION for around six and a half years. I initially joined as Environment Director, and after three years, I transitioned into the Sustainability Director role. My responsibilities now focus on leading LION's overall sustainability strategy, which we divide into three pillars—Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)—to maintain clarity and focus. My role is to set the strategy across these pillars and ensure its successful implementation. Before joining LION, I worked across a range of carbon intensive industries, including aviation, chemicals, steel, and aluminum. This diverse background has been invaluable in bringing a fresh perspective to challenges such as decarbonization, water stewardship, and advancing the circular economy within the brewing industry. I'm a chemical engineer by background, and the first half of my career was centered on engineering and management roles. My first dedicated sustainability role was at Qantas, where I worked for six years before joining LION. How has the company's sustainability program evolved over the years, and what are your specific priorities for 2025? When I first joined, our sustainability strategy was organized into distinct areas of focus. On the environmental side, it centered around four key pillars: carbon, water, packaging (within the broader circular economy), and environmental risk management. Socially, our priorities included responsible consumption—our most material issue as an alcohol producer—along with community investment and reconciliation work with Australia's First Nations people. We've also focused on broader human rights initiatives, which naturally tie into responsible sourcing. Governance underpins all of this, with a growing emphasis on climate reporting, risk management, and policy development, particularly as new disclosure requirements emerge globally. Most recently, we've made significant progress. For example, on carbon, we have science-based targets cascaded from our parent company, Kirin, in Japan. In Australia, we've already exceeded our 2030 Scope 1 and 2 targets, achieving a 70% reduction against our 2019 baseline. This success is largely due to investments in renewable electricity, including agreements to supply 100% renewable power to our Australian operations. In New Zealand, we have a credible pathway to meet our 2030 target of a 55% reduction, but the U.S. presents more challenges. Access to renewable energy agreements there is more complex, so identifying opportunities to secure wind and solar power for our U.S. breweries will be a major focus over the next few years. On water stewardship, we're on track to achieve a 2.4L/L water efficiency target at our large breweries in water-stressed regions—Brisbane, Sydney, and Launceston—by next year. This has been enabled by the installation of a new reverse osmosis water recycling plant at Tooheys in Sydney that matches our water recycling operations at XXXX Brewery in Brisbane. For packaging, we're making strong progress in increasing recycled content. On average, our packaging contained over 70% recycled material last year. Some of our glass bottles have exceeded 80% recycled content, and aluminum cans exceed 50%. Working closely with our suppliers, we're continuing to reduce demand for virgin materials and the carbon intensity of packaging. For instance, using recycled glass reduces energy consumption in glass furnaces, especially when combined with innovations like oxygen injection and cullet pre-heating, which has the potential halve furnace energy use. Looking ahead to 2025, we're shifting focus from discrete efforts on carbon, water, and circular economy to integrated projects that deliver impact across multiple pillars simultaneously. To truly accelerate progress, we need to move beyond individual efforts and start collaborating more deeply across the value chain. Our suppliers make up roughly 80% of a beer's carbon footprint, so working collectively with them is essential. A great example is the Australian Climate Leaders Coalition's Scope 3 Roadmap project, where we brought key players together—packaging suppliers, maltsters, logistics providers, and customers. Instead of relying on generic database figures, we gathered real carbon emissions data directly from our partners. It wasn't easy—there is a natural reluctance to share sensitive data—but we addressed concerns by aggregating where needed and building trust. With accurate data, we could have meaningful discussions about emissions reductions—whether that's increasing recycled content in packaging, using electric trucks, or working with farmers on regenerative agriculture. This project demonstrated the power of collaboration and the need to take the blinkers off. Too often, companies pursue the same targets independently, missing opportunities to work together. In 2025, we'll focus on fostering more of these 'pre-competitive' collaborations, where competitors and partners align on shared challenges. There's precedent for this—like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil —where companies worked together to address deforestation. We're out of time, and we can't afford to tackle these issues alone. Guardrails are needed to ensure compliance with competition laws, but these non-competitive conversations are critical to accelerating change. A great example of this approach is the work we're exploring to support the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef. Projects like this demonstrate how we can simultaneously address nature conservation and sustainability challenges across the value chain. Ultimately, I find this deeply exciting. There's so much potential when we work together. The limits of going it alone are now clear, but when we take collective action, we can make a much bigger impact on the climate, circularity, and beyond.
