Sustainable Heineken® Greener Bar launches at Heineken® London E-Prix

London E-Prix Race Title Partner Heineken® has launched its first sustainable bar concept, the Heineken® Greener Bar, as part of its wider role as a 'Sustainability Partner' of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship with ambitions to make event bars a little bit greener.

The Heineken® Greener Bar is a completely new entertainment experience for Heineken® that uses new building methods, materials and technologies focused on improving how we upcycle, recycle and reuse materials. Through its innovative design, the Heineken® Greener Bar will help to reduce waste, water, emissions and energy usage, ultimately creating a more sustainable bar solution for events.

Every element of the Heineken® Greener Bar has had a life before or will have a life long after the bar is gone. From the uniforms of the staff, the soil and plant ballasts weighing the bar down, the coasters made from the spent grain of the barley used during the brewing process, through to the use of reusable and recyclable cups, everything is designed to create a completely circular bar experience.

Per event, as analysed by Meet Green, the Heineken® Greener Bar saves up to*:  

  • 6,539kg of event waste: the equivalent to the daily waste from 2,209 ‘average’ households.
  • 5,335 kilowatt hours of energy: the equivalent power used to run 4,337 standard dishwasher cycles.
  • 21,128 kilograms of CO2e emissions: the equivalent to saving the emissions from driving a fossil fuel vehicle around an average Formula E track 7,775 times.
  • 25,108 litres of water: the equivalent to 53,421 pints of water.
The Heineken Greener Bar: a more sustainable solution

The Chill Station

As part of its continual journey to seek new innovations that can improve sustainability throughout the organisation, Heineken® has also created a one-of-a-kind experiment called The Chill Station, designed to explore and test new, more sustainable ways to chill beer.

It uses the principles of convection and kinetic power (and a little bit of elbow grease) to chill Heineken® 0.0. What would take several hours in a traditional fridge, can be done in a matter of minutes, resulting in a 30% energy saving.

Some of the key sustainable design innovations include:

  • Zero Waste Design - The standing tables and benches in the bar are made from reclaimed wood from elm trees that fell naturally near the Heineken® brewery in Amsterdam, reducing production emissions by 86%, while the bar counter and many other parts of the bar are made from recycled Heineken® crates, which will be re-used for every event, resulting in an estimated saving of 343kg worth of production emissions.
  • Reusable Shipping Containers: The entire bar is designed to pack easily into two shipping containers, that also form the structure of the bar. This not only reduces the materials required to construct the bar, but also makes travel as efficient as possible with DHL shipping the bar, using 100% renewable energy (HVO100 biofuel).
  • 100% renewable energy: The bar uses renewable energy sources. For the 2021 season, emissions saved from using renewable power is anticipated to be the equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 75 trees grown for 10 years.
  • A Greener Way to Chill: through partnering with Red Bull Advanced Technology to transfer motorsports technology to the Heineken® Greener Bar, we have developed a fridge that cools Heineken® up to 20% faster, without an increase in energy consumption.
  • Soil and Plant Ballast: Soil and plants act as the ballast for the structure of the bar, as opposed to traditional water-based ballast systems, saving up to 4,725 litres of water per event. The ballast bags are reusable and will be used all season, with the plants and soil to be donated to a local community project.
  • Energy-Saving Roof: The roof, created to look like the foam on a Heineken® beer, has been specifically designed to be lightweight for travel and translucent so consumers can enjoy the sun, removing the use of lights and reducing energy usage.
  • The WOBO wall: By creating the main bar wall from Freddy Heineken's unique innovation, the WOBO bottle - a specially developed glass bottle that can be reused for building purposes - 224kg of production emissions are saved.

Published on 23rd July 2021

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Bram Westenbrink, Global Head Heineken® Brand, said: “At Heineken®, we are on a journey towards ensuring that our entire business, from barley to bar, is run as sustainably as possible. The Heineken® Greener Bar is our latest pitstop on this journey. We are so excited to have created a sustainable bar concept that can be developed and utilised at all our sponsorship properties, to help showcase how we are able to make every part of our business a little greener every day. We are so pleased to have been able to work in partnership with Formula E and our other motorsport partners to develop the innovations required to bring this important sustainability idea to fruition.”

Nico Rosberg, Sustainability Entrepreneur and 2016 Formula 1 World Champion: “I am really excited to be part of the launch of this amazing innovation from Heineken®️. Sustainability is at the heart of everything I do, and I firmly believe in the power of innovation, so I am immensely proud to see Heineken®️ embracing this and combining the expertise from the motorsport industry with their knowledge from the brewing industry to help drive forward a more sustainable solution for the global events industry."

Julia Palle, Sustainability Director at Formula E: “Formula E’s mission is to showcase that we can live more sustainable lifestyles with no compromise on the excitement. We are so pleased to have been working with Heineken® on this innovative and fun project that enhances our fans experience with a positive impact on people and the planet. Heineken® is leading the way in the event industry, cheers!”

Eric Wallinger, Director of Sustainability at Meet Green, an independent third-party sustainability auditing company, commented: “Personally I believe the Heineken® Greener Bar will be well ahead of 99.9 per cent of other event builds in the industry, both by virtue of its thoughtful and comprehensive environmental design, as well as having it all codified in an assessment.”

Brew a Better World

As part of its wider 'Brewing a Better World' commitments, sustainability is a key focus for Heineken®, recently resulting in the introduction of new brewing processes that ensure all malt barely is sustainably sourced, and that breweries use green energy to ensure Heineken® beer is produced with as little impact on the environment as possible. Now, as part of the ‘Decade of Action’, Heineken® is turning its innovative spirit towards event bar infrastructure.

The long-term ambition of the bar is for it to become the solution at Heineken® events and experiences across the globe, starting at Heineken®’s 2021 Formula E and Formula 1 events.

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