AB InBev has introduced a lightweight bottle for Beck’s and Beck’s Blue in the UK, a change which will affect more than 130 million bottles and save 2,642 metric tons of glass in 2013.
The new 275 ml bottle is 11 percent lighter than before and is expected to remove almost 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the company’s manufacturing process in 2013, AB InBev said. The reduction is the equivalent to the CO2 released when powering 380 UK households each year.
The first bottles were rolled out in Beck’s Blue in February 2012 and Beck’s Pils in May 2012, the company said.
The switch to a lighter bottle is part of AB InBev’s Best Beer Company in a Better World campaign and also contributes to the Courtauld Commitment, a voluntary pledge among UK retailers to cut packaging and food waste.
AB InBev UK’s Stella Artois brand signed the Courtauld Commitment in 2010. All AB InBev UK brands signed onto phase 2 of the commitment, whose targets are being measured from January 2010 to December 2012 against a 2009 baseline.
According to results of Courtauld Commitment Phase 2, released in October, UK retailers and brands including Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Kraft Foods reduced their supply chain waste by 8.8 percent compared to 2009, putting them ahead of a three-year target of 5 percent.
AB InBev has also met its 2012 goals of a 99 percent recycling rate and a 10 percent reduction in CO2 emissions per hectoliter of production, against 2009 levels. The brewer last year cut greenhouse gas emissions relative to production by 5.3 percent.
The company is on track to meet other environmental goals. The targets, first established in 2009 and to be met by the end of this year, include reducing water use to 3.5 hectoliters of water for each hectoliter of production, and cutting energy use per hectoliter of production by 10 percent.