The theme of this year’s Climate Week NYC was “It’s Time”, and rightfully so. It is indeed time for us to focus towards higher ambition, accelerated innovation, and deeper partnerships. At Asahi, we see platforms like Climate Week NYC as essential in uniting global leaders and inspiring collective action, and our presence this year underscores our commitment to playing a part in this process.
Ambition: Net zero across our value chain by 2040
The need for bold, decisive action is clear. This is demonstrated by the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, which states that if current trends continue, we will pass 1.5°C warming by 2040, reaching 2°C by 2050.
Asahi has set an ambitious target to achieve net-zero emissions across our entire value chain by 2040. Originally aiming for 2050, we moved this target forward by a decade to demonstrate our commitment to climate leadership. This commitment means addressing emissions across our value chain, from production to distribution, and ensuring that our operations are fully aligned with a low-carbon future, with the EU recommending a 90% net greenhouse gas reduction by 2040 compared to 1990 levels.
Our 2040 net zero goal isn’t just about reducing emissions – it’s also about leading by example while encouraging and supporting our suppliers and partners on our joint sustainability journey. Pushing our ambition to 2040 will give us all sufficient momentum to reach our 2030 targets, which are key building blocks for our activities over the following decade.
All of our targets and implementation initiatives are rooted in science and transparency – we are signatories and members of Science Based Targets, RE100, the United Nations Global Compact, and Climate Group – all of whom have inspired and supported us in moving towards higher our ambition for 2040, which is already redefining our sustainability journey and accelerating our implementation.
Innovation: Launching Asahi’s global Sustainability Innovation Program
We recognize that achieving net-zero operations by 2040 will require more than incremental action; CDP points out that the development of sustainable technologies and business practices will be led by innovative organizations that adopt ambitious targets in their drive to become low-carbon businesses. It’s a defining time for sustainable innovation and climate technology, as these developments will help us leapfrog any obstacles to unlock exponential reduction in carbon emissions.
In its “Breakthrough Innovation” platform, UNGC highlights that it’s time for companies to get serious and level up their climate commitments by adopting new mindsets, business models, and disruptive technologies to promote growth opportunities and reverse global warming. At this year’s Climate Week NYC, we were proud to launch Asahi’s first-ever global Sustainability Innovation Program. The program will mark a significant milestone in our sustainability journey.
At Asahi, our internal R&D division has been exhaustively researching sustainable technologies and we’ve already implemented novel and innovative solutions. For example:
- We installed farm sensors in the Czech Republic for our Pilsner Urquell brand’s barley and hops farmers;
- Our Peroni brand in Italy built a blockchain to enable supply chain transparency;
- Our Radegast brand brewed beer using water extracted from humidity in the air;
- And last year, we launched a carbon-capturing vending machine in Japan.
However, we realize that we also need a focused and centralized external partnership program for innovation that involves peers, innovators, start-ups, and researchers. We invite other companies and organizations to join us in our Sustainability Innovation Program – we will begin the due diligence phase in Q4 of this year and share the findings with our partners.
We absolutely cannot do this alone. At Asahi, we want to get behind all the game changers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and researchers. We want to make it easier to explore, to take a great idea to scale, to connect solutions with investments, and to celebrate everyone who is dedicating their talent to repairing our planet.
Helping innovators to get their ideas from working prototypes to scale quicker is at the heart of our mission for this project – we want to search, select, support, and help scale technologies that are solving the world’s sustainability problems, irrespective of whether they’re coming from start-ups, NGOs, or academia. By embracing cutting-edge technologies and new business models, we aim to not only decarbonize our own operations, but also inspire wider change across the industry. Because when it comes to our climate, the world will succeed or fail as one.
“It is great to see businesses like Asahi challenging themselves on how they can go further with their commitments. This requires a lot of learning by doing and experimentation together, so initiatives like Asahi’s new Sustainability Innovation Program are really great ways of embracing complexity and actively seeking solutions.”
Helen Clarkson, CEO, Climate Group
Collaboration: Partnering with global leaders for climate action
No company can tackle climate change single-handedly. Speaking at the UNGC 2024 Private Sector Forum, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said of the recent adoption of the Pact for the Future, an intergovernmental declaration pledging commitments in areas including the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, “We now need the support of all stakeholders, including the private sector, to ensure that the Pact’s ambitions are translated into meaningful change on the ground.”
Collaboration is key to creating a sustainable future, and Asahi is committed to building strong partnerships with organizations that share our vision. We highly value our collaborations with global coalitions, NGOs, and businesses at Climate Week NYC, as the event provides a unique platform to unite diverse leaders, exchange ideas and solutions, and accelerate collective action.
Asahi is a very proud member of Climate Group’s RE100 initiative. Additionally, we are actively engaged with many other NGOs and initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact, Business for Social Responsibility, Consumer Goods Forum, CDP, Brewers for Europe, WFA Planet Pledge, the Race to Zero campaign, and the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) to amplify our efforts and enable us to contribute to climate solutions while gaining insights and support from like-minded organizations.
Looking ahead to COP29
As we look forward to COP29 – a pivotal moment for assessing our progress and pushing for more ambitious climate commitments – one message is clear: urgent action is essential. As Climate Group CEO Helen Clarkson stressed in her speech at the Opening Ceremony of Climate Week NYC 2024, It’s Time for us to put climate at the heart of every conversation and to “aim higher, be bolder, and keep pushing forward” as we make crucial decisions and prioritize tangible actions that make a real-world impact.
The time for action is now, not tomorrow; businesses must continue to lead the fight against climate change, and Asahi is committed to ensuring sustainability remains central to our operations.
At Asahi, we are bringing our colleagues, partners, and communities together to build a sustainable future. We are committed to uniting people to make the world shine brighter and leave a legacy of a brighter world tomorrow.
Find out more about our sustainability journey here.