In FY 2013, the company is targeting a 1 percent reduction in GHG emission intensity.
Around two-thirds of the 2012 GHGs were direct emissions from fuel use at Bacardi operations, and one-third came from Bacardi’s electricity use. The company’s total energy use increased by 7 percent in FY 2012 from the previous year, and fell by 24 percent since 2006.
Bacardi says it is now recording and monitoring GHG emissions from business travel and third-party transport and production activities, estimating that 12,000 metric tons of GHG emissions resulted from bulk transport and 10,000 metric tons from business travel by air. It says data on emissions from business transport by rail and car and from contract production are not yet available.
The company also notes, in the waste and packaging section of its report, that about half the lifetime carbon footprint of its products come from the manufacture of glass used in its packaging.
Shifting focus to renewables
Bacardi says that in FY 2012, it changed the focus of its energy-reduction efforts, beginning to concentrate more specifically on reducing the portion of energy from non-renewable sources. It says that in FY 2012, it increased renewable energy use by 15 percent year-on-year.
The company estimates that 18 percent of its total primary energy is renewable, up from 7 percent in FY 2006. The 18 percent is made up of 6 percent renewable electricity, provided under exclusive renewable electricity contracts, and 12 percent biogas.
“Primary energy” is a combination of direct energy consumption and estimated indirect energy – the fuel needed to generate its electricity, assuming a 33 percent efficiency for electricity generation and transmission – plus a figure equivalent to the additional fuel that Bacardi would have consumed without its renewable energy use.
Interestingly, the company seems to put itself at a disadvantage by counting all electricity supplied from the power grid as “non-renewable,” even if it contains a significant amount of renewable energy. For example, most of Brazil’s power comes from hydro-electricity, but the company still considers this non-renewable. The only sources it counts as renewable are on-site resources such as wind and biogas, and contracted renewable energy from third-party providers.
The report doesn’t provide details of steps Bacardi has taken to increase renewable energy generation or improve energy efficiency in the past year, although it does note that its rum bottling plant in Tultitlán, Mexico, has significantly improved its energy efficiency over the past six years, now requiring only 45 percent of the energy previously used to produce one case of product. At the plant, Bacardi has improved the efficiency of bottling lines, replaced older light fixtures with LED units and motion detectors, and installed solar water heating to provide hot water for the cafeteria and offices.
