Heineken has announced its first barley harvest to be generated by a large scale large-scale regenerative agriculture model.
The harvest comes courtesy of an industry collaboration led by Vivescia, the French cooperative farming group.
The brewing group’s collaboration with Vivescia aims to protect and improve soil health, biodiversity, climate, and water resources while supporting farming business development, it says.
This year, about 200 Vivescia member-farmers in the North-East of France joined the initiative and by 2025, 500 farmers are expected to be involved.
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Heineken counts on purchasing most of the barley production from participating farmers via its suppliers, aligned with its ambition to reduce its scope 3 FLAG emissions by 30% by 2030.
Herve Le Faou, senior director of global procurement at Heineken, said: “Our collaboration with Vivesic Group and Malteurop and its subsidiaries contributes to Heineken’s ambition to reduce its scope 3 FLAG emissions by 30% by 2030. Agriculture represents approximately 21% of our total carbon footprint.
“By investing in regenerative agriculture practices, we aim to not only reduce our environmental impact but also to strengthen the resilience of our supply chain for the future.”
Heineken reduced its absolute emissions across scope 1, 2 and 3 by 21% since 2018, figures published earlier this year show.
