Carbon Footprint Report (2022-2023)

March 12, 2024

At the First & Last Brewery we recognise that it’s important for us all as individuals and businesses to understand and limit the impact we have on the natural world. Environmental responsibility plays a key role within our ethos & values.

There are many ways to measure this, the most widely accepted method nationally and globally is currently carbon emissions. Increased Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is what is believed to be driving climate change.

Over the last 18 months we have been working with Sustainable Business Services to track, measure, understand and reduce our carbon footprint. You can read the full report here but we’ve summarised what we think are the main findings below.

Summary of F&L Carbon Footprint Report 2022-2023

Scope 1 – Direct emissions resulting from our business activities;

for us this is predominantly emissions from our delivery vehicles.
This accounts for approx. 30% of our total emissions
For us to make any significant reduction within our scope 1 we require advances in technology to bring electric vans, or similar, to market which are capable of carrying the payload we require. We shall continue to watch keenly for developments in this area.

Scope 2 – Indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used;

Our brewery is heating by electrical elements. We have always sought energy contracts from suppliers who provide 100% renewable energy.
Our emissions within this scope are therefore negligible.

Scope 3 - Includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company value chain, e.g. purchased goods;

This accounts for nearly 70% of our emissions
A significant proportion of this is from use of courier services (eg. delivery of raw materials)
We need to explore in more details the impacts of the packaging we use
We need to engage with our suppliers to better understand our scope 3 emissions

We see many businesses making pledges to reduce emissions by 50% or commit to being net zero by a certain date. We have decided to make no such pledge as the vast majority of our CO2 emissions relies on the advancement of new (and affordable) technologies (scope 1) and third-party suppliers (scope 3). We are committed to prioritising the elimination, substitution, and reduction of carbon in advance of any offsetting commitments.

According to this baseline data for 2022-23 we produce 34 kg CO2 e per Hectolitre of beer produced (a Hectolitre is 100L). This is a useful measurement for us to compare our carbon emissions with other breweries.

First & Last Brewery	34 kg CO2 e / HL
AB-InBev (Budweiser, Stella, Becks, Corona, Leffe, Hoegaarden, Goose Island, Camden Town....plus others)	47.29 kg CO2 e / HL
Molson Coors (Carling, Coors, Miller, Staropramen, Blue Moon, Cobra, Worthingtons....plus others)	61.48 kg CO2 e / HL
Heineken (Amstel, Forsters, Birra Moretti, Sol, Tiger, Strongbow, Old Mout Cider....plus others)	72.7 kg CO2 e / HL