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Key facts
Beam Suntory aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its entire value chain by 2040.
With the help of sennder’s green business, Beam Suntory has cut carbon emissions from road freight by nearly 90 percent on key shipping lanes in Germany and the Netherlands.
Currently, 9 out of 10 shipments that Beam Suntory runs with sennder use advanced fuels like HVO.
Beam Suntory is a world leader in premium spirits. With a regional HQ in Madrid, Spain, and distilleries across the world, including in Scotland, Ireland, England, Spain and France, Beam Suntory is an international industry leader with a broad footprint across Europe. Its portfolio of brands includes bourbons such as Jim Beam® and Maker’s Mark®, plus a range of Japanese and Scotch whiskies, Courvoisier cognac, ready-to-drink cocktails and other premium spirit.
Today, Beam Suntory is guided by the principle of Growing for Good and its Proof Positive sustainability strategy, which includes ambitious, specific goals around water, climate, land, and packaging, among many other initiatives. As a company, it strives to dream big and continuously works towards building a sustainable, resilient future.
— Kim Marotta, Beam Suntory’s VP of global environmental sustainability“We want to be a climate positive business, which means leveraging new technology and innovations to make significant, beneficial changes to how we operate”
Taking action to reach high sustainability goals
Beam Suntory aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its entire value chain by 2040.
As an initial step toward that goal, Beam Suntory is working to reduce carbon emissions from its direct operations by 50 percent by 2030.
Halving carbon emissions in less than a decade is no easy target. But Beam Suntory is determined to achieve this goal through a sustained commitment to its Proof Positive strategy to actively contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future.
To help achieve its carbon emissions target, Beam Suntory reached out to sennder’s green business experts to find solutions for reducing carbon emissions in their supply chain.
Switching to advanced fuels slashes road transport emissions
As part of sennder’s green business initiative, shippers can choose to use low-carbon advanced fuels, such as HVO and B100, to operate their lanes instead of fossil diesel.
HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) is a form of renewable diesel derived from food waste products, like used cooking oils. This means that the fuel itself is renewable. It also burns cleaner than fossil diesel, so it reduces local air pollution and carbon emissions.
“sennder and Beam Suntory are already reducing emissions by 90 percent with advanced fuels on road transports”, says Graham Major-Ex, director of green business at sennder.
An advantage to HVO fuel is that it is compatible with diesel engines. This means that any diesel truck can run on 100 percent HVO fuel without any modifications or additional mechanical wear and tear.
Since advanced fuels can be used in the vehicles that are already carrying freight on the road, switching to advanced fuels is simple. sennder offers shippers the opportunity to decide what fuel is used on their lanes.
“We are committed to shipping our products in a sustainable and ethical way,” says Beatriz Velasco, logistics sustainability manager at Beam Suntory.
Beam Suntory’s commitment to their sustainability goals and their enthusiasm for this project allowed the sennder team to help get these low carbon solutions on the road immediately.
“We’ve been able to transition, immediately, part of the business that we’re doing to HVO fuel,” says Charlie Caraher, sennder general manager in Benelux, adding that both parties are discussing expanding advanced fuel use to additional transport volumes.
With sennder’s fuel and emissions data tracking, Beam Suntory can set and meet goals
Beam Suntory agreed to use HVO fuel on their lanes across the Netherlands and Germany 11 months ago. Since then, they have seen a CO2 emissions reduction on those lanes by precisely 88.8 percent.
Currently, about nine out of ten of the loads that Beam Suntory ships with sennder run on advanced fuels.
“That’s a huge, game-changing shift towards low carbon fuels,” says Graham Major-Ex, director of green business at sennder.
But more importantly, Beam Suntory plans to continue working with sennder to scale up carbon emissions reductions in the coming years. Ultimately, this partnership is helping Beam Suntory get closer to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across their entire value chain by 2040.
“With sennder, we’ve been able to establish a road map to set specific targets for the amount of carbon emissions we will remove from our supply chain,” says Marotta.
Thanks to the comprehensive fuel use and emissions data that sennder tracks across all loads, Beam Suntory knows exactly how much carbon emissions are coming from road transport.
By working with sennder’s green business experts to reduce carbon emissions now, Beam Suntory is getting ahead of the game.