CO₂-Neutral Wiesn with HOFBRÄU MUNICH

For the first time, all Hofbräu beers and the festival tents where they are served are made CO₂-neutral exclusively through regional measures: Projects for healthy soils ensure a climate-friendly balance for Hofbräu beer, its transport to the Wiesn, and the operation of the festival tents for the next 5 years.

Hofbräu Munich - A Pioneer in Climate Protection
Hofbräu Munich was the first brewery in the world, together with the University of Augsburg, to measure the CO₂ footprint of beer across the entire process chain "from field to customer" in 2010-2011. Based on this, the company's climate strategy was further developed with the goal of achieving complete CO₂ neutrality in the medium term. In addition to ambitious goals for reducing the brewery's greenhouse gas emissions, the second pillar of this strategy is to establish its own program with convincing, regional Bavarian compensation measures.

Measures
Hofbräu Munich realized its first project in 2017 together with the Bavarian Nature Conservation Fund by restoring a moorland area in Weitmoos in the municipality of Eggstätt in the Chiemgau region. The brewery is now implementing a concept together with the company CarboCert from Bodnegg on Lake Constance to bind greenhouse gases from the air through soil humus building. Soils are the world's largest carbon store, containing more carbon than all the plants and the Earth's atmosphere combined.
The completely new concept in Germany of binding greenhouse gases through soil regeneration excellently combines soil, groundwater, and climate protection. In the first step, farmer Mr. Ulrich Gamperl from Thann near Zolling has contractually committed to implementing humus-building farming measures on 44 hectares of his arable land. This will bind at least 100 tons of CO₂ per year over the next 5 years.

CO₂-Neutral Oktoberfest
Hofbräu Munich has measured the CO₂ emissions associated with the production and transport of the Hofbräu Oktoberfest beer and other beers consumed at the Wiesn, as well as the operation of the four festival establishments that serve Hofbräu beer (Hofbräu Festzelt, Zur Schönheitskönigin, Weißbierkarussell Fahrenschon, Weißbier Alm Heinrich and Liselotte Haas).

This results in 66 tons of CO₂ emissions. The humus-building measures and moorland restoration fully compensate for these CO₂ emissions.

The auditor of Hofbräu Munich's EMAS environmental management system, Dr. Reiner Beer (Intechnica Cert GmbH, Nuremberg), has validated the measurement and compensation of these CO₂ emissions.

Certificate Presentation
As part of the presentation of the Ökowiesn by festival director Clemens Baumgärtner, the CO₂ certificates were handed over to brewery director Dr. Michael Möller at the Hofbräu Festzelt on Monday, September 16, 2019.
More information about Hofbräu Munich's environmental commitment

Speech by Manfred Mödinger, Hofbräu Festzelt, September 16, 2019

For the first time in 2019, all Hofbräu beers and the festival establishments where they are served will be "CO₂-neutral." How did this come about? And what does that mean?

Hofbräu Munich is one of the very few breweries that has been committed to extensive and systematic environmental engagement since the last century. With my help, the brewery began in 1998 to examine all its activities under the then-called "Eco-Audit" process, setting regular improvement goals and supporting them with concrete measures.
After the European legislature turned this into the so-called "EMAS Regulation," HB was among the first breweries in Europe to be EMAS validated in 2001. Since then, Intechnica, an engineering firm from Nuremberg, has been responsible for auditing HB.
Hofbräu does many things differently from other industrial companies. Here, 20 years of meticulous work on environmental protection is done before telling the public about it. Usually, it's the other way around. But we firmly believe that this approach is the credible one that people can trust.

Hofbräu Munich - A Pioneer in Climate Protection

It's the same with climate protection.
From the beginning, energy-saving measures and thus the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions were at the forefront of activities. A milestone on this path was the switch of the entire brewery to green electricity from hydropower in 2009. This instantly reduced the brewery's carbon dioxide emissions by over 1,000 tons per year.
In recent years, the installation of a new bottle washer, the renovation of the brewhouse, and the conversion of lighting to highly energy-efficient LEDs have been the most important measures to significantly reduce the heat and electricity demand and thus the combustion of natural gas and greenhouse gas emissions.
But HB has not only implemented "standard measures" that the industry follows for cost reasons alone. The climate crisis is too serious, and the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are too important to stop there.
Hofbräu Munich was therefore the first brewery in the world, in 2010-2011, together with the university and the Environmental Science Center in Augsburg, to investigate the greenhouse gas emissions of beer across the entire process chain from field to customer. The results were published in a book.
This is particularly significant because, until then, there had been very few such studies of the relationship between production methods and greenhouse gas emissions in global industry.
Based on this, the company's climate strategy was developed, with the goal of achieving complete CO₂ neutrality in the medium term.
Two fundamental principles were formulated:
1. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions always takes top priority over everything else.
Specifically, this means reducing the brewery's greenhouse gas emissions per hectoliter of beer produced by 30% by the end of 2019 compared to 2011. This is very ambitious, so it may not be achieved until 2020.
2. For the remaining greenhouse gas emissions, compensation measures should be developed in Bavaria. HB aims to create a program with a "Bavarian Gold Standard." Developing such a program in 2012 was practically revolutionary and a highly ambitious endeavor.
It's not difficult to go to carbon credit traders on the global market, give them money, and have them take care of beautiful and undoubtedly important projects in the southern hemisphere.
It's infinitely more demanding to organize such projects yourself and, above all, to bring about the calculation of greenhouse gas sequestration and its independent certification. Accordingly, there were not a few setbacks along the way. For example, HB initially sought contact with the German Nature Conservation Association to support its moorland restoration measures in Bavaria. That would have made sense, but these measures were not measurable and therefore not certifiable.
Since moorland restoration is an excellent way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and store them in moorland soil, HB wanted to pursue the topic further. This led to contact with the Bavarian Nature Conservation Fund. A first project in Schäftlarn failed due to lack of acceptance by the landowner.
Thus, a first project was not realized until 2017, together with the Bavarian Nature Conservation Fund, by restoring a moorland area in Weitmoos in the municipality of Eggstätt in Chiemgau. This will bind over 1,100 tons of greenhouse gases over a 50-year period. A measurement and certification concept was developed and implemented in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan.
Then we heard about a project in Styria where farmers were binding greenhouse gases through targeted soil regeneration and humus building measures. And so we came to the company CarboCert and Mr. Abler from Bodnegg on Lake Constance.

How does it work?

Greenhouse Gas Sequestration Through Soil Building

Soils are the world's most important carbon store. Soils contain more carbon than all the plants and the Earth's atmosphere combined. So it makes sense to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through numerous humus-building measures via plants, while at the same time regenerating the soil and increasing its water storage capacity. This excellently combines the requirements of climate protection, soil protection, and groundwater protection.
Funding is provided by purchasing CO₂ certificates from CarboCert, e.g., by Hofbräu Munich. This finances the necessary humus building measures and laboratory analyses. The participating farmers are supported in their soil improvement activities. This facilitates consistent implementation and is a classic win-win situation between the environment, agriculture, and the brewery.
In the first step, the brewery enlisted Mr. Ulrich Gamperl, a farmer in Thann near Zolling, to carry out humus-building farming measures on 44 hectares of his arable land over the next 5 years. He will demonstrate the amount of greenhouse gases sequestered through soil measurements and maintain this sequestration in the following years.

CO₂-Neutral Oktoberfest

Hofbräu Munich has now calculated the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and transport of the Oktoberfest beer consumed at the Wiesn, as well as the operation of the four festival establishments that serve HB beer. After municipal compensation measures with the supply of green electricity and green gas, about 66 tons of CO₂ emissions per year remain. The humus-building measures by Mr. Gamperl and the restoration of the Weitmoos moorland fully compensate for these CO₂ emissions. The assessment and compensation of this CO₂ output have been validated as accurate by Hofbräu's EMAS environmental management system auditor, Dr. Reiner Beer of Intechnica Cert GmbH, Nuremberg.
Thus, Hofbräu Oktoberfest beer and the festival establishments serving it will be CO₂-neutral in 2019 and the following years.