We’re AB InBev, brewer of some of the world’s best beers, like Stella Artois, Corona and our American brand Budweiser. Here’s the story of how AB InBev and Luminus, one of the largest energy suppliers in Belgium, installed 2,117 solar panels on the roof of Leuven's Stella Artois brewery.
Leuven in Belgium is our Home of Beer and the home of our Global Head Quarters. Leuven is also home to one of our biggest breweries that supports the sale of our famous brands across Europe. In fact, the de Hoorn brewery, just down the road from the current site, is the original brewing site of Stella Artois from 1366. As well as looking back to our heritage, we also look forward to stay true to our purpose to build a better world with a focus on sustainability and the environment.
The solar panels installed on the roof of our brewery in Leuven cover an area of 3,800 m2 and produce 576,000 kWh of green energy annually. It’s enough to supply the annual consumption of about 150 families or the production of nearly 30 million 25cl beer bottles per year. The interesting thing here is that all the energy is routed back into the brewery, to support our business operations there. So from now on our beer is brewed and packaged with the help of solar energy! The solar sharing project was co-founded with the help of 269 private local investors who will enjoy an average gross return on investment of 3% for the next 5 years.
To bring this project to life we had the AB InBev Supply, Procurement and Legal and Corporate Affairs departments working together as one team. We talked to Alexandra who’s currently responsible for purchasing Green Energy and Utilities within the Procurement team. She had the idea for the “Solar Sharing” initiative, took ownership and proposed it to our Sustainability Lead and Corporate Affairs team, and they accepted the idea with great enthusiasm. And we’re excited to say the solar panels are now on the roof of the brewery.
Alexandra said “I am very proud that we managed to involve the local Leuven community in the project and allowed them to make their own personal contribution to climate change actions. I am also happy that we raised consumer awareness about the sustainability efforts of AB InBev.”
As the largest brewer in the world, AB InBev has a very strong sustainability policy and wants not only to make use of the green energy itself but also to involve all Leuven residents and the talents and drive of our people like Alexandra. Our people are not afraid of taking ownership and are ready for challenges. We work as one team to make an impact, in the service of our purpose of a better world.