The Sustainability Year in Stories: April 2024

December 24, 2024

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Brooklyn Brewery

We look at the articles that made the news in 2024. Today, it is April's turn, featuring Guinness, Carlsberg and an SBTi carbon offsets crisis

Climate-Resilient Beer with Brooklyn, Guinness & Carlsberg

World breweries including Carlsberg and Diageo-owned Guinness have joined forces for a project to produce beer using the versatile, ancient West African grain, fonio.

The grain, which has thrived in West Africa for over 5,000 years and is widely used in African cooking, is drought resistant and requires no irrigation, pesticides or fertilisers.

Now Brooklyn Brewery’s founder Garrett Oliver has launched Brewing for Impact, which will see breweries from seven countries coming together to create a series of limited-edition beers that will spotlight fonio's qualities.

Carlsberg

Beer with a sustainable kick

Garrett says: “In some ways ‘Brewing for Impact’ is the most important work I've ever done.

“If what we've started truly catches hold in the industry, we will hopefully start seeing the wider use of a grain that has no need for irrigation, fertilisers, pesticides or other chemical inputs.

“It also supports soil regeneration while providing a vital source of income for thousands of smallholder farms in West Africa, which are predominantly female-led – all while making some really fantastic beers."

Air pollution

Will SBTi Survive the Storm over Carbon Offsets Support?

When it comes to whether organisations can use carbon offsetting to hit their Scope 3 targets, it seems the standards body’s indecision is final.

It has been a veritable hokey-cokey, with the Science Based Targets initiative apparently declaring carbon offsetting “in”, then “out”, then “in” - maybe.

One thing is certain – SBTi has shaken the net zero sector all about.

In an apparent attempt to calm the storm, SBTi CEO Luiz Amaral wrote a blog, saying: “I acknowledge and deeply regret the concern and distress this situation has caused and want to reassure my SBTi colleagues and stakeholders that the SBTi’s dedication to science-based decarbonisation, public consultation and standard-setting governance is unwavering. The SBTi standards have not changed.”

That, hopefully, soothed the fears of those who are fundamentally opposed to the use of carbon offsetting – including the New Climate Institute.

It previously said “...companies would get a carte blanche to continue business-as-usual for another decade and take no responsibility for reducing the large majority of their emissions”.

Perhaps Luiz should have left the blog there. But he put his left foot in and out again.

He wrote: “I refuse to avoid a difficult discussion if it could potentially improve our standards to deliver a bigger impact. This deliberation is underway and advancing.

“...we are exploring changes to tackle the challenges that exist around Scope 3, including exploring responsible use of Environmental Attribute Certificates (EACs) with the right guardrails and limits.”