Is Brewing Giant Asahi Group on Course to Hit Net Zero?
Asahi Group’s 2025 sustainability report explores its ongoing efforts to integrate sustainability across all facets of its business.
The report is part of a suite of disclosures – including the People & Culture Report and the Corporate Governance Report – that together provide stakeholders with a comprehensive view of Asahi’s approach to value creation and responsible management.
At the core of Asahi’s sustainability strategy are group-wide targets designed to address climate change, promote resource efficiency and foster positive social impact.
The company’s medium- to long-term vision is to achieve net zero across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2040.
As interim milestones, Asahi aims to:
- Reduce CO₂ emissions in Scopes 1 and 2 by 40% by 2025 (compared to 2019 levels)
- Achieve a 70% reduction in Scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 2030
- Cut Scope 3 emissions by 30% by 2030
By 2025, Asahi says it is on track to source 100% of purchased electricity from renewable sources for major production sites.
The company reports reduction in GHG emissions of Scope 1 and 2 by 35% in 2024, with the objective to achieve a 70% decrease by 2030.
In packaging, Asahi has set a target to achieve 100% conversion to recycled materials, bio-based materials, etc. for all PET bottles by 2030 and achieved 37% in 2024.
Climate change and decarbonisation
Climate action remains the most pressing material issue for Asahi.
The company’s focus is on:
- Transitioning to renewable energy across all operations
- Reducing energy consumption through efficiency measures
- Collaborating with suppliers to lower indirect emissions
Asahi highlights its breweries in Europe and Australia as leaders, with commitments to group net zero by 2040 and the use of green electricity by 2025.
A joint statement from Asahi's CEO Atsushi Katsuki and Chief Sustainability Officer Drahomira Mandikova in the report says: “We are currently focusing on finalising and activating all our sustainability roadmaps, building One Asahi global capabilities through common methodology and digital sustainability platforms that compile and leverage regional data and accelerating collaborative engagement with different partners, suppliers and companies.
“This requires an innate desire to cooperate in nonhierarchical partnership with wide-ranging stakeholders on a sweeping scale, which the Asahi Group is well placed to do.
“Our employees around the world share the curiosity and drive of our senior management that fiercely advocate collaborative sustainability.”
Sustainable packaging
Asahi aims to address packaging waste and resource scarcity through a circular economy approach.
Its initiatives include:
- Increasing the use of recycled materials in packaging
- Reducing overall plastic use by 25% in Europe by 2030 (from a 2019 baseline)
- Expanding the sales of unlabelled bottles, which saw a 110% year-on-year increase in Japan in 2023.
The company says it is working closely with its suppliers and consumers to switch to packaging with a low environmental burden.
It hopes that this could lead to an increase in sales through response to demand for more sustainable products.
Water stewardship
The beverage industry relies heavily on high quality water being available, so poor water management could not only harm the environment but also Asahi’s own operations.
It aims to reduce its water consumption through a variety of initiatives.
These include formulating water management plans, rationing water use in cleaning processes and collecting robust data.
Asahi’s soft drinks business reuses water that it has used to clean and sterilise beverage cans and PET bottles and has changed the shape and water flow rate of machines used in cleaning.
