The Knockdhu Distillery Company Ltd, ThaiBev’s subsidiary in Scotland, has further extended its commitment to sustainability by developing artificial wetlands as a treatment system for the liquid residue left after its distillation process; this consists of six separate, aggregate-filled, Bentomat-lined cells, working in two pairs of three cells. With a surface area of 2,000 square meters, the wetlands are home to 21,000 plants of 17 different species. The system, which has support from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, has proved to be highly successful at copper removal, pH correction, and removal of both COD and BOD, taking off the road each week 8–10 bulk tankers (each with a 25,000-litre capacity) and resulting in a carbon reduction of approximately 40 tonnes per annum. In addition, the wetlands have become a haven for insects, small mammals, birds, and bats.

ThaiBev's subsidiaries in Scotland announced a collaboration with kelp restoration non-profit, SeaTrees, making a commitment to plant more than 4,000 mangrove trees globally, and restore 2,665 square-feet of kelp forest. This project is set to sequester carbon, increase biodiversity and protect over 700 species of fish, invertebrates and algae.

To celebrate this new partnership, a special US edition of Old Pulteney 12 Year Old Single Malt was released, with US$2 from the sale of every special-edition bottle being donated to SeaTrees.
Learn more about SeaTrees here.

A project to farm 4,800 fish of four different species, using treated water from a distillery wastewater treatment plant in Myanmar. Local villagers were invited to come on an observation visit, to learn how to farm fish using treated wastewater.

ThaiBev collaborates with the Forest in Our Hearts Foundation to conserve the environment and endangered wildlife, and solve pollution problems, by restoring and maintaining forests, and by increasing green space in all areas of Thailand. With the aim of achieving sustainable economic, social and environmental development, the first project was initiated in Chiang Dao District of Chiang Mai Province after it was affected by wildfires in March 2020. A fertile area that’s home to Thailand’s only semi-alpine plant community, Chiang Dao’s mountain, Doi Luang, was designated as the fifth UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Thailand in 2021.

In 2023, with the support of ThaiBev, the Forest in Our Hearts Foundation collaborated with the community, especially young people, and government officials to participate in reforestation and seeding heritage activities in 24 community forests in Chiang Dao District, 10 community forests in Mae Taeng District (Chiang Mai Province), and 11 community forests in Ban Rai District and Lan Sak District (Uthai Thani Province), covering a total area of 750 rai (120 hectares). In addition, the Community Forest Project supported the construction of 60 weirs to slow down water in Pa Sak Biosphere Reserve.

ThaiBev already covers the solar system project’s phases 1–3 with solar rooftops and floating solar panels at the spirits factories, breweries, non-alcoholic beverage factories, and food factories in Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Total installation in 40 factories has been completed, with a total capacity of 42.48 MWp. The installed solar panels can generate 29,383 megawatt hours (MWh), which reduces the cost of electricity purchased from the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) by 123.41 million Baht per year and lowers GHG emissions by 13,799 tCO₂ e in FY2023.

ThaiBev encourages its suppliers in the supply chain to implement renewable energy scheme within their own production processes such as solar power and biomass. One of ThaiBev’s strategic sugar suppliers has promoted the use of clean energy in factories by transforming bagasse, waste from the sugar cane crushing process, into biomass fuel, which is then used in the production process. It also increases the proportion of clean energy use by installing solar cells to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

ThaiBev works with its suppliers and partners to reduce transport distances of agricultural crops where possible by cross-mapping the locations of its own production facilities with that of its suppliers to determine the shortest route.

ThaiBev uses palm oil as the key agricultural commodity in food business, especially at its chain restaurants located nationwide, i.e., Oishi Group and KFC. As one of the food waste management measures The food business group in collaboration with a fuel production company, supports the proper management of used cooking oil. This includes not discarding it, not reusing it for frying, and not disposing of it in public areas. They aim to establish safe cooking oil usage standards for consumers by recycling used cooking oil to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) instead of biofuels for the aviation industry. SAF can be used in aircraft without affecting the engines. A total of 708 restaurant branches under Thai Beverage have joined the project to support the efficient and renewable use of resources. This initiative also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from biofuel use in aviation to move towards a low-carbon society and comprehensively address the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economy model for sustainable development.

These annual awards aim to promote supplier development, private sector competitiveness, sustainable business practices, and innovation. The contenders for the awards are ThaiBev’s strategic business partners, including critical suppliers, suppliers with strong business relationships, and high-volume suppliers. The awards are divided into three tiers: Silver, Gold, and Platinum (business partners who receive a Gold Award for three consecutive years). In 2023, ThaiBev added a requirement to track the carbon footprint of the agricultural raw materials they supply to ThaiBev as well as provides recommendations for suppliers who have not yet tracked their own emissions. To further strengthen this endeavor, ThaiBev aims to have more visibility to its scope 3 GHG emissions and increase the proportion of primary data source acquired from suppliers in order to co-develop reduction plan.

ThaiBev invites agricultural raw material suppliers to participate in ThaiBev Business Partner Award program every year with the aim to increase awareness of sustainable agricultural practice. The program is an incentive for suppliers to implement sustainable agricultural initiatives and operate in line with sustainability standards, such as, BonSucro, RSPO, Rainforest Alliance, SEDEX, etc.

The majority of ThaiBev’s agricultural commodity tier 1 suppliers are either manufacturers or distributors. Instead, the local farmers are considered to be ThaiBev non-tier 1 suppliers who cultivate and supply agricultural commodities to the tier 1 suppliers.

Understanding the challenges local farmers face in adopting sustainable agriculture practice, we encourage our tier 1 suppliers to implement similar farmer support programs to ensure that the farmers have sufficient knowledge and resources.

• Broken rice is among ThaiBev’s five key agricultural commodities, which are used in white spirit distillation and beer production. ThaiBev sources 100% of broken rice from local suppliers and is committed to ensuring that 100% of broken rice is responsibly sourced in alignment with recognized international and local standards such as SAI, SMETA, SEDEX, and Thai Labor Standard (TLS). ThaiBev carries out supplier development programs with broken rice suppliers to continuously strengthen their capability and prevent supply disruption from any arising ESG risks.
• In addition to ThaiBev’s suppliers, the broken rice supplier promotes the sustainability agriculture standard, which is that standard that educates the farmers to ensure an understanding of sustainable agricultural practices and how to apply them to agricultural processes. Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) technique, resource utilization is determined, and the total emissions of the product system cover the raw material process, production process, implementation, and disposal of the remains after use, which can reduce up to 17.8% of GHG emissions by water and farm management.
• Sugar suppliers who participate in the program have implemented BonSucro standard in their own sugarcane supply chain. The supplier educates the farmers to ensure the understanding of sustainable agricultural practice and how to apply to the agricultural processes. These farmers are monitored regularly with dedicated team to visit their farms onsite to provide any supports during the transition period. The area with major improvement after applying BonSucro include soil health, soil nutrition, fertilization, waste management, and water quality. In addition, to the application of BonSucro standard in the sugarcane supply chain, ThaiBev also collaborates with the supplier to develop the community within supplier’s facilities, e.g., provide knowledge on organic agriculture, promote the cultivation of quick-growing crop to be used as renewable energy, etc.