The South African Breweries (SAB), the country’s largest beer brewer, has signed a power purchase agreement with Bio2Watt, a Black-woman-owned industrial-scale biogas waste-to-energy company. The renewable energy will be supplied from the Cape Dairy Biogas Plant once it reaches commercial operation.
Although the plant is still in the process of being built, it will make use of waste collected from one of South Africa’s largest dairy farms. Over 7,000 cows residing on the farm will see the plant make use of slurry manure with a mix of other wastes from the surrounding region to produce renewable electricity.
SAB procurement director for Africa, Kyle Day says, “We have made a global commitment to explore renewables to reduce carbon emissions and reach 100% contracted renewable electricity by 2025. We also believe we have a duty to ease the pressure on the national grid. Through this partnership, we are proud to progress on both fronts as we make our way to a cleaner, greener and more self-sustainable future.”
The move is in line with holding company Anheuser-Busch InBev’s global 2025 sustainability targets for climate action – 100% of its purchased electricity will come from renewable sources and carbon emissions will be reduced by 25% across its value chain.
23% contracted renewable electricity
“Under this power purchase agreement and installed renewable electricity, SAB will achieve 23% contracted renewable electricity,” says VP of procurement and sustainability in Africa, Conor Ruff.
“All of SAB’s Breweries in South Africa already use solar power, which we are currently expanding and the Alrode brewery in Johannesburg is also making use of a biogas facility. As we accelerate our sustainability strategy, we are looking forward to collaborating with more partners in the renewable energy space”, Ruff concludes.
