Beer to spearhead innovative product environmental footprint initiative

The Brewers of Europe is delighted that Beer has been selected as a pilot for the European Commission’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) project. The initiative, aimed at analysing the opportunity for the development of a systematic methodology for calculating the environmental footprint of food products, will help brewers to continue their pioneering work in the field of product sustainability.

 “The brewing sector is consistently looking for novel and innovative ways to reduce its environmental footprint and we greatly look forward to helping Europe achieve its core objectives in the field of product sustainability,” said Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, Secretary-General of The Brewers of Europe.

Already following a period of intense reductions, in the 2 years up to 2010, an average 4.5 % less water was used, and 3.8 % less energy and 7.1 % less CO₂ emissions generated, for the production of each litre of beer. Brewers’ grains, a secondary product produced during the brewing process, are also used in bread, yeast extract, paper, bricks and animal feed, with enough grains produced annually to feed up to 2.4 million cattle.

The Brewers look forward to cooperating with the Commission, including through other PEF pilots in related fields such as agriculture and packaging in the quest for a more sustainable and efficient Europe.