A BRITISH multinational alcoholic beverages company has committed £180 million in renewable energy resources across its African breweries to ensure its breweries are carbon-friendly and energy-efficient.
This commitment represents Diageo’s largest environmental investment in a decade.
The initiative will cover 11 of Diageo’s African brewing sites in seven countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Seychelles, Nigeria and Ghana.
The sites will receive efficient modes of power and water technology such as solar energy, biomass power and water recovery initiatives.
Ivan Menezes, Diageo’s CEO, said: ‘We believe this is one of the biggest single investments in addressing climate change issues across multiple sub-Saharan markets. It demonstrates the strength of our commitment to pioneer grain-to-glass sustainability and to positively impact the communities in which we live and work.’
In Kenya, Diageo’s brand new brewery in Kisumu has already had solar power and water treatment facilities installed to ensure its operations have minimal impact from their start.
According to a company statement, with 100 percent renewables and cutting edge water efficiency, the brand believes ‘Tusker will be the most environmentally sustainable brewery in sub-Saharan Africa.’
Diageo Chief Executive, Ivan Menezes, added: ‘We’ve set ourselves ambitious environmental targets, aligned with the United Nations global SDGs, and our efforts to deliver on these by 2020 continues at pace.
‘Progress has included a 45 percent reduction in our carbon emissions and a 44 percent reduction in our water consumption over the past decade, while we also now look to the future and how we extend beyond 2020 with this investment.”