CSR in Supply Chains of Brewing Industry - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 106

3.3.1 Kompania Piwowarska
In order to ensure constant availability of returnable packaging for production,
Kompania Piwowarska is continuously increasing effectiveness of gathering it
from the market. The vehicles that come back to a distribution centre or a brewery
after having delivered beer to a client should always do so with returnable pack-
aging, regardless of the amount of the packaging available at the address of the
delivery.
The company also tries to educate the market in the field of sorting packaging.
Leaflets and posters that inform which bottles are returnable and in which crates
they should be returned have been prepared for retail shops. When sorting quality
is raised, production capacity on bottle lines is increased—and it is the packaging
that is the most desired and, at the same time, most difficult element in the sea-
son because of reverse logistics (Kompania Piwowarska Sustainable Development
2013 ).
3.3.2 Grupa Z Ǚ ywiec
In 2010, in co-operation with one of the key packaging suppliers, Grupa Ǚ ywiec
realised a project whose aim was to reduce the thickness of the metal sheet used
to produce plain cans for Grupa Ǚ ywiec. The decrease in the metal sheet thickness
from 260 to 245 μ translated into a decrease in the weight of the cans and made
it possible to reduce the amount of the material used. The weight reduction by as
little as 0.3 g enabled to decrease CO 2 emission by 1,310 kg and cut the amount of
energy used by nearly 1.33 % for every million of new/lighter cans. In 2012 Grupa
Ǚ ywiec bought 924,963,560 cans, which meant CO 2 emission savings at the level
of 1,211 t (Grupa Kapitałowa Ǚ ywiec S.A. 2012 ).
3.4 Energy and Greenhouse Gases
Economic development causes an increasing demand for energy worldwide.
It is satisfied to a large extent by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas.
When burning fuels, huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), which, apart from
other greenhouse gases such as methane, contributes to global warming and cli-
mate changes, are released into the atmosphere. Energy consumption and car-
bon dioxide emission have already ceased to be the subject of scientific theories
only. Governments in the whole world are starting to exert pressure to introduce
appropriate solutions by tax tools and fees for emission. In 2010, the average
specific energy consumption of breweries was 116.8 MJ/hl (calculated on a LCV
basis). This represents a decrease of 3.8 % since 2008 (see Fig. 6 ) (Donoghue
et al. 2012 ).