Surrounded by rugged wild beauty at its North Cornwall home, Sharp’s Brewery is committed to finding new ways to protect and sustain the coastal environment that inspires its creativity and beers.
Green brewing at Sharp’s. Photograph: Guy Harrop
It has now been announced that the Rock-based brewery is set to make 100% of its products from 100% green electricity, in a move driven by its owner, Molson Coors.
Molson Coors, which also owns iconic brands such as Carling, Coors, and Aspall Cyder, has become the first major brewer in the UK to produce all of its beers and ciders using 100% renewable electricity.
This long-term agreement covers all of its UK operations, including the Sharp’s Brewery production site at Rock, North Cornwall, and other production locations, such as Burton-on-Trent and Burtonwood.
Molson Coors has signed a power purchase agreement with one of the world’s leading renewable energy companies, RWE, to supply its UK operations with electricity generated from the Tween Bridge wind farm in South Yorkshire.
Under the terms of the ten-year agreement, RWE will deliver around 75 gigawatt hours of green electricity per year through its 22 turbines which will power the brewery at Rock, including its offices.
This long-term agreement means that, for the first time, all of the more than 1 billion pints Molson Coors produces in the UK in an average year will be made with electricity from 100% renewable sources.
In an average year, Molson Coors consumes the same amount of electricity as around 25,000 households — or the population of the business’s historic UK brewing home in Burton-upon-Trent.
Globally, Molson Coors has signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative as part of its Our Imprint 2025 goals, and committed to a series of emissions targets in line with the 1.5ºC goal set out in the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
As part of this plan, Molson Coors committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 50% across all of its direct operations by 2025. The PPA agreement sees the business on track to meet that milestone in the UK four years ahead of schedule.
The Cornwall-based Sharp’s team has long held its sustainability objectives as a top priority. In recent years, the team has been proactive in developing measures to reduce their footprint on the environment as well as creating engaging activity to raise awareness of environmental issues, such as their Keynvor project, in which they created the world’s first playable vinyl record made from ocean waste plastic.
Commercial director at Sharp’s Brewery, Dai Griffiths, said: “I speak on behalf of the team here in Rock when I say that we are thrilled with this switch to 100% green electricity.
“We are proud to be among major companies signing up to the Science Based Targets Initiative and to know we are helping to lead the way to a more sustainable future. As a major player in the UK brewing world, it is important that we take the lead and share the responsibility.”
