Anheuser-Busch commits to 100% renewable energy

PV Magazine

With $46 billion in annual revenue, the beer giant may be the largest company to date to take a 100% renewable energy pledge.

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While the U.S. federal government is moving energy policy in a distinctly 19th century direction, large corporations are taking a different stand. This was evidenced on Monday, when the world’s largest brewer committed to purchase electricity only from renewable energy sources by 2025.

AB InBev, better known as Anheuser-Busch, reported revenues of $46 billion in 2016 and has a huge presence through its brands, including Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois and Beck’s. According to the RE100 campaign the move will make it largest corporate direct purchaser of renewable energy in the consumer goods sector.

“Climate change has profound implications for our company and for the communities where we live and work,” said AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito.

The company’s first purchase of renewable energy will be from a wind farm in Mexico, however the company is expected to purchase both wind and solar for its operations in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and other nations. AB InBev’s commitment is expected to increase the wind and solar capacity in Mexico alone by 5%.

Currently AB InBev gets 10% of its electricity from on-site fossil fuel generation, so the commitment to only purchase renewable energy means that its facilities will be 90% powered by renewable energy in 2025. We at pv magazinewill be raising a glass or two to the company anyway.

Source: PV Magazine. Reproduced with permission.

Comments

One response to “Anheuser-Busch commits to 100% renewable energy”

  1. Colin Avatar
    Colin

    Great news, and hope to hear more; but I think companies such as Intel are already way ahead here. Intel had sales of $55.9 billion in 2014 and are already at 100 per cent renewable.

    “Top 10 green-power-hungry US corporations

    1. Intel
    Total green electricity consumption: 3.1bn kWh per year Green power percentage: 100% Semiconductor company Intel is the largest U.S. purchaser of renewable energy certificates, supporting biogas, biomass small hydropower solar and wind projects. (Read about the three corporate strategies for getting to 100% renewables: buying renewable-energy credits, signing power purchase agreements and installing projects onsite.) The semiconductor company has also installed 18 solar projects on nine of its campuses, which collectively generate more than 10m kWh per year. The 1-megawatt solar field in this photo spans nearly six acres of land at the company’s Folsom, California, campus. All together, Intel’s certificates and projects add up to 100% of its massive annual electricity use…”

    Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/gallery/sap-renewable-clean-energy-goal-intel-microsoft-kohls-walmart

    Source: https://www.google.com.au/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2015/01/15/intel-record-revenue-weak-forecast/%3Fsource%3Ddam

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