Craig Woodburn: Sustainable Beer From Grain to Glass

Please introduce yourself and tell me about Molson Coors

I’m Craig Woodburn, Sustainability Director for Western Europe at Molson Coors Beverage Company. 

Molson Coors Beverage Company is one of the largest brewers in the world, and within our region of Western Europe is custodian of some of the UK’s best-known brands such as Carling, Coors and Madrí Excepcional, alongside award-winning local favourites like Sharp’s Atlantic IPA, Franciscan Well Chieftain IPA in Ireland and La Sagra Cerveza Premium Lager in Spain. 

I have been working in environmental compliance and sustainability for more than two decades, across various sectors around the globe, integrating different learnings and opportunities to help businesses become leaders in the sustainability arena. It is an exciting time to step into this area with Molson Coors and to showcase some of the industry-leading work being done within the company.

The biggest change I’ve seen in recent years is an acknowledgment of the need for sustainability input into the widest of business discussions. It’s been a refreshing change and something that has already been very evident during my short time at Molson Coors. 

What is Molson Coors doing to drive sustainability in procurement, brewing, supply chain, etc?

Back in 2017, Molson Coors set ambitious sustainability targets to achieve by 2025 against areas aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals where we felt we could have the greatest positive impact. Those goals, part of our Environmental, Social and Governance approach, form what we call Our Imprint – so called because we believe that every time one of the drinks we make is picked up, an imprint is left behind, and we want that imprint to be a positive one. 

In November 2023, we had our net zero targets approved for our global business out to 2050 by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), outlining our commitment to reach net zero across our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

The business has already made significant progress towards these goals. We hit our target to reduce carbon emissions in our direct operations in Great Britain by 50% by 2025 four years early, and we’re now aiming to reach net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions across all sites in Britain by 2035. We announced a £100m investment in our UK production network in April, which will play a crucial role in supporting our progress to meet these commitments. 

As we accelerate our progress towards our whole value chain target, we are continuing to increase engagement with our suppliers to understand the challenges they face and collaboratively develop solutions, with the support and experience of our procurement teams. 

Data collection, accuracy and availability is a key priority for us and our suppliers and customers. It is essential for targeted reductions, as well as driving continuous improvement at pace. Data provided by our suppliers will improve visibility of the trajectory needed to ensure we achieve net zero across our value chain by 2050, if not earlier for our Western Europe operations.

We realise we are one of many organisations seeking increasing amounts of information to enable clear and transparent visibility of the progress we are making along our net zero trajectory, and it’s important that we work together to accelerate progress toward the same collective aim. That’s why we are working with our trade associations, such as the British Beer and Pub Association’s Environment and Sustainability panel, to promote greater collaboration across the industry. 

What do you think are the key challenges for the industry to address?

As businesses progress on their journey to net zero they can immediately focus on production activities around Scope 1 and 2 emissions connected to fuel and electricity use. We have made good progress in this area – for example, our products in the UK are made using 100% renewable electricity through a Power Purchase Agreement – but we continue to seek new ways to reduce use through operational efficiency and investment in production process and equipment. 

A big focus now for the industry is tackling Scope 3 emissions in areas such as packaging, agriculture and raw materials.

The entire brewing industry relies on raw materials like barley, hops and clean water to make our beverages, which are all at risk from climate change. It’s important for us to find ways to protect these vital resources. We continue to work with our Molson Coors Growers Group, a network of approximately 140 British farmers who provide the malting barley we use to brew our beers, formed in 2008, with a shared commitment toward achieving more sustainable farming methods and ideas, including well-planned crop rotations and cover cropping to protect and improve soil health and biodiversity. They also share data and insights to help the wider group adopt more sustainable practices.  

We have seen a number of farmers in the group being recognised for their sustainability commitments including things like regenerative farming and biodiversity activity, demonstrating some of the benefits of long-term partnerships.

Water is used at nearly every stage of our operations, and we strive to use it as efficiently as possible, especially in areas where water scarcity and limited access are exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Our partnership with the Molson Coors Growers Group is also playing an important role here, as we work together to ensure we’re using water as efficiently as possible in producing some of our raw materials.

Sustainable packaging of products is essential for us to reduce our environmental impact, customers and consumers expect products to reach them in a suitable condition for use and therefore we continue to look at ways we can do this whilst continuing to reduce the environmental impact of doing so. This will only be achieved by working together with providers to support development of new approaches.

Do you have some examples of Molson Coors’ sustainable initiatives?

Molson Coors has taken important steps to reduce the environmental impact across its entire business, from grain to glass. We’ve been investing heavily in our breweries over the past decade to make our operations more energy efficient.

In 2021, we became the first major UK brewer to make all of our products using 100% renewable electricity, thanks to a power purchase agreement with RWE. Our electricity now comes from 22 turbines at Tween Bridge wind farm in South Yorkshire – powering all of our UK production sites and our offices. 

We have carbon dioxide recovery plants at our Burton and Tadcaster breweries, which allow us to recover carbon dioxide from the fermentation process each day, reusing it in the brewing process and reducing the amount released into the atmosphere. 

In the UK and Ireland, all of our production sites are zero waste to landfill, and in April 2021 we achieved our goal of removing all single-use plastic from across our major brands. Back in 2020 we removed the plastic wrap around our larger packs, moving to fully enclosed cardboard, and in 2021 we removed plastic rings, switching to cardboard sleeves that are fully recyclable, made from renewable wood fibres from certified sources. 

In Great Britain, Carling is made with 100% British barley, supplied by our Molson Coors Growers Group to keep road miles low. 

These are just some of the steps we’re taking to reduce our environmental impact, and we will continue to explore new ways to make our business more sustainable and accelerate our path towards our net zero goals.

Any key messages you'd like to share?

We’re incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made against our sustainability commitments, but we know it is an ongoing journey. We recognise the importance of continuing to invest in making our business more sustainable not only for our own and the planet’s benefit – because we believe it is the right thing to do, and ultimately makes our business more efficient – but because it is what customers and consumers rightly expect.

We need to take a holistic approach to sustainability, focussing on every step of our value chain, from grain to glass. Collaboration with our suppliers, customers and more broadly across the industry is going to be absolutely key to achieving our collective sustainability goals. 

By continuing to work together as an industry we have a much greater chance to accelerate our journey to net zero.

To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.

Explore the latest edition of Sustainability Magazine and be part of the conversation at our global conference series, Sustainability LIVE. 

Discover all our upcoming events and secure your tickets today.

Sustainability Magazine is a BizClik brand