Budweiser shouts “green beer” for all on St Patrick’s Day in the US

US beer brand Budweiser has pledged to turn each and every beer green on St Patrick’s Day in the US; not with food dye – as is the tradition for American beer drinkers on March 17 – but with renewable energy.

The Anheuser-Busch owned brewer will do this^[1] by pledging enough Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to cover the estimated electricity used to brew beer in the U.S. in one day – a number it says it has come to based on Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable estimates.

This #StPatricksDay^[2] we’re turning EVERY BEER into #GreenBeer^[3], no food coloring needed. We’re donating enough renewable energy credits to = the electricity needed to brew every beer in the U.S. for the day. 🍀♻️

Check back on #StPaddysDay for a chance to win a cooler of Bud!! 🍻 pic.twitter.com/vRvQT5PZ13^[4][5]

— Budweiser (@budweiserusa) March 12, 2021^[6]

Budweiser, which is already brewed with 100% wind power in the US, said it had felt inspired to think differently about the true definition of “green beer” and how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in a new way.

To this end it has also used the occasion to invite other beer brands to join an industry-wide commitment to brew all beers in the U.S. with 100% renewable electricity by 2030 – a goal Budweiser is calling, the “Green Electricity Beer Bar.”

“As one of the world’s biggest brands, we’re committed to reducing our environmental impact, and through this campaign, we invite others to join us in helping to change the beer industry to be a more sustainable one,” said Monica Rustgi, VP of Marketing at Budweiser.

Of course, Budweiser also understands the marketing pull that renewable powered beer seems to have, having first advertised its switch to wind power in a high-priced Super Bowl spot^[7] that aired to roughly 100 million viewers in February of 2019.

Parent company Anheuser-Busch – which is the fully owned US subsidiary of the world’s largest brewing company, Anheuser-Busch InBev – announced its own shift to 100 per cent renewables^[8] in June of the same year, off the back of a PPA with a 310MW west Texas solar farm.

Many, many other brewers, big and small, have done – or are promising to do – the same. In Australia, this has included XXXX and Little Creatures brewer Lion, who invited us to “crack a solar beer^[9]” in late 2019 while committing to use renewable electricity only to power its operations by 2025.

Fellow major Australian brewer Carlton & United, or CUB – which is now owned by Japanese brewing giant Asahi – shifted to 100 per cent renewable in 2020, via a 12-year deal to buy the output of the 112MW Karadoc solar farm in Mildura in Victoria, and celebrated with a solar-themed take on its iconic Vic Bitter ads^[10].

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