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BrewDog surrenders carbon negative claim
Drinks multinational BrewDog will let its claim to be a carbon negative brewery lapse, exiting the carbon credits market from November.
In an email to shareholders, new BrewDog CEO James Arrow said that the “market for carbon credits has changed” since BrewDog became carbon negative in 2020.
He said the high cost of purchasing credits led to the decision. BrewDog previously purchased carbon credits to offset production and distribution emissions to sustain its claim to be carbon negative.
“We’ve taken the decision to exit the carbon market so we can focus on reducing emissions in our operations and supply chain,” he said.
“It means that we’ll be letting our carbon negative claim lapse over the next few months.”
The UK-based brewer claimed that the cost of high-quality carbon credit schemes has “gone through the roof”, as reported by The Grocer.
“Some people will be disappointed that we’ll be relinquishing our carbon negative claim, but the use of funds we’d otherwise spend on carbon offsets is better invested in facilitating the decarbonisation of our process,” the brewer added.
This is just the latest blow to BrewDog when it comes to sustainability.
In April the brewer confirmed that almost 100,000 saplings planted by the brewer in Scotland to sequester carbon have withered and died.
In December 2022 BrewDog lost its status as a B Corp company, less than two years after joining the scheme.
At the time, a spokesperson for B Lab, the organisation responsible for awarding B Corp status to ethical companies following a rigorous set of protocols, revealed that BrewDog was no longer a Certified B Corp.
On 1 December 2022 then CEO James Watt sent an internal memo to staff stating: “We have decided to step aside from our B Corp certification for the time being. B Lab had requested additional measures from BrewDog and the BrewDog board decided that these were not something we could do at this time.”
James Watt has since stepped down from his role as chief executive, having been the centre of a number of controversies for the company. Watt has taken up a non-executive role at the brewer, and was replaced in May by new CEO James Arrow, who has occupied the COO position since September 2023.