Beer brand Tennent’s pledges £14.2m to boost green credentials

C&C Group owned beer brand Tennent’s has invested £14.2 million in sustainable initiatives including scrapping plastic packaging, using green energy and implementing waste management practices.

The Scottish lager, made at the Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow, has launched a new marketing campaign to support its sustainability drive, featuring its usually red ‘T’ symbol lit up in bright green.

From Spring 2020, cans of Tennent’s lager will be packaged in cardboard rather than plastic, with plastic rings and shrink-wrap phased out. This will result in 150 tonnes less plastic produced per year. Tennent’s has become the first brewer to join The UK Plastics Pact, which intends to ban single-use plastic used in packaging by 2021.

Using the tagline ‘because life is bigger than beer’, Tennent’s plans to drop all plastic use by 2025 and to use renewable energy with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2025.

In order to do this, it has committed to the installation of a new anaerobic digestion and carbon capture plant at its Wellpark site, which it says will save the equivalent CO2 emissions of 27,000 flights from Glasgow to London each year.

The brewer has already installed a waste water treatment plant at its brewery, which generates bio-gas which is used to help heat the brewery. This bio-gas currently represents 5% of the brewery’s energy needs.

The brewer has reduced the amount of water, which it sources from Loch Katrine, by 24.3 million litres per year.

Martin Doogan, group engineering manager at Tennent’s parent company C&C, said: “As Scotland’s oldest surviving business, and one of its best-loved, we take our responsibility to do the right thing very seriously.

“Sustainability is a core part of our brand and today marks a significant step-change in our plans. We’ve leveraged our scale and influence, our passion for innovation and our network of contacts to ensure that we act decisively against climate change, without delay.

“It’s a leap in the right direction – but we’re not complacent and we’re not finished.

“We will continue to seek out ways to minimise our environmental impact across our entire business, from our transport fleet, to international deliveries.

“Our commitment is to lasting environmental change; in our company, in our industry and beyond.”