A TECHNOLOGICAL upgrade has led to a 60 per cent saving in energy loss at Carlsberg’s breweries amounting to planting 300 trees and maintaining them for 100 years, the company announced yesterday.
The presentation took place as part of the celebrations of World Environment Day which fell on June 5.
About one million euros went into installing an energy recovery system to reduce vapours during the brewing process and recover the heat from the vapours to feed it back into the brewing house.
The project was funded by the Commerce Ministry as part of funding reduction in energy use.
Energy conservation is the cheapest and most direct way to manage energy resources Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides yesterday said.
In the last six years, a total of 683 funding applications were approved amounting to €3 million, Paschalides added.
By upgrading their breweries, Carlsberg has improved resource efficiency using less energy to produce equal or greater amounts of beer.
Resource efficiency is becoming increasingly relevant and was the subject matter of the European Commission’s ‘Green Week’ between May 24 and 27.
The conference brought together policy makers and innovators who wanted to see a competitive Europe which could cope with the scarcity and depletion of natural resources.
Home-country initiatives led by the private sector in collaboration with the state – such as Carlsberg is doing – was one of the recommendations of the president the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Bjorn Stigson.
Stigson emphasised the need for governments to provide an environmental framework with private business acting as a solution provider.
Cyprus already faces serious water challenges with experts warning the situation will worsen with summers becoming longer and drier.
The manufacturing industry accounts for 11 per cent of the total amount of water usage in Europe, according to statistics presented in Green Week.
Carlsberg filter the water they use for irrigation, among other initiatives to increase their efficiency.
And the company’s Pavlos Fotiades publicly committed yesterday to making Carlsberg the leaders in environmentally conscious policies in Cyprus.
