Austria’s biggest beer brand Gösser found guilty of greenwashing

Austria | A consumer watchdog objected to Brau Union advertising its beer brand Gösser as “carbon neutral”. Because, in a strict sense, it is not. A court recently sided with the activists.

Austria’s major brewer, Brau Union, which is owned by Heineken, has long promoted its Gösser beer as carbon neutral, both on the packaging and in television commercials, with monikers such as “brewed carbon neutral”, “we have been brewing 100% carbon neutral since 2015” and “100% of the energy required for the brewing process comes from renewables”.

A regional court in Linz, whose ruling was made public on 15 June, upheld the complaint, saying that the advertising messages actually misled customers. Only the brewing process in the narrower sense uses renewables, the ruling said, whereas natural gas is used for the production of malt.

The Association for Consumer Information (VKI) had sued Brau Union for violating the competition law. In its defence, Brau Union had argued that malting was not part of the brewing process. The judge, however, replied that Brau Union itself had listed malting as part of the brewing process on various corporate websites, including Gösser’s. The advertising was therefore unclear and could mislead consumers.

In the meantime, the carbon neutral message has disappeared from the website. The judgement is not yet legally binding. Both VKI and Brau Union have contested it.

The VKI had also demanded that, in future, Gösser must state that the brewing process only accounts for 12 percent of the beer’s total carbon footprint. However, the court rejected this demand. According to the ruling, agriculture contributes 39 percent to the beer’s carbon footprint, malting 6 percent, with packaging, transportation and refrigeration contributing the rest.

Brau Union produces some 5 million hl beer annually. The Gösser brand alone represents 1 million hl.