Asahi Beverages commits to ambitious sustainability targets

MEDIA RELEASE: Asahi Beverages has unveiled a new sustainability agenda as it uses its significant scale to create a more sustainable future for Australia and New Zealand.

The agenda introduces new targets while incorporating previously announced ones, helping protect our planet and build a more sustainable business.

Asahi Beverages brands in New Zealand, from Long White Vodka and BRB (Boundary Road craft beer) to Phoenix Organics and Charlie’s, will be even stronger because of our upgraded sustainability commitments.

The agenda covers climate change, sustainable packaging, and the circular economy, supporting local farmers and much more. The full list of targets is here and includes:

• Source 100% of our purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2025
• Zero waste to landfill at our manufacturing sites or warehouses by 2030
• Reduce scope 3 CO² emissions by 30% by 2030 and to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. We are engaging our suppliers – from farmers to packaging companies to logistics – to help reduce CO2 emissions beyond our own business operations
• All our packaging will be 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025
• Transition to 100% eco-friendly materials for PET Bottles by 2030. Eco-friendly means either compostable, bio based or 100% recycled content

Asahi Beverages employs more than 3,500 people across 26 manufacturing and corporate sites in Oceania including 400 in New Zealand, with employees directly engaged in helping guide how the business achieves its targets through internal ‘think tanks’.

Asahi Beverages Group CEO Robert Iervasi said:

“Sustainability is core business for Asahi Beverages.

“We want our employees, customers and consumers to know that when they make or buy our products, they’re supporting a more sustainable future for New Zealand and Australia.”

Asahi Beverages is already committed to taking an industry-leading sustainability position. This includes:

• Shifting Asahi Beverage NZ’s vehicle fleet from diesel and petrol to hybrid.
• Cool Ridge water (sold in both New Zealand and Australia) is now made with 100% recycled PET.
• Supporting New Zealand growers by purchasing barley locally.
• Forming a JV to build a PET recycling plant in Albury, NSW that will process the equivalent of around one billion plastic bottles and be Oceania’s largest when it officially opens in coming months. This will help the business to achieve its target of developing partnerships to collect and repurpose more plastic for recycling by 2025.
• Installing at the Yatala Brewery in Queensland the largest solar project at any brewery in Oceania, helping us achieve our target to source all electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

In New Zealand, Asahi Beverages NZ is also a proud supporter of Sustainable Coastlines (through Phoenix Organics) with staff regularly taking part in beach clean-ups.

In relation to Asahi Beverages new sustainability targets, Brooke Donnelly, CEO of the Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Island (ANZPAC) Plastics Pact says, “It’s fantastic to see a member of the ANZPAC Plastics Pact showing strong leadership in such a critical area.

“Achieving the 2025 Regional Plastics Targets is one of the most crucial sustainability goals facing the industry throughout Oceania and it is vital that our biggest and most influential companies step up and make sustainable packaging a priority. As one of the largest beverage companies in the region, it’s so pleasing to see Asahi Beverages not only making a firm commitment for a sustainable future, but also already rolling out exactly the kind of packaging initiatives we need to see across the industry moving forward.”

Asahi Beverages NZ is also a member of the Glass Packaging Forum which connects businesses that sell glass-packaged consumer goods with those that collect and recycle glass. This enables glass to be returned to the furnace or made into alternative products, with the aim of zero container glass to landfill.

For more information please contact:

Jo Jalfon
Manager, Corporate Communications
Asahi Beverages NZ
Tel: + 64 27 201 2645
jo.jalfon@asahi.co.nz