• EABL burning agricultural waste for steam in Kenya, Uganda
• Biomass projects will help company cut emissions by 95%

Diageo Plc’s East African unit is using macadamia shells, sugar bagasse and coffee and rice husks to produce electricity at factories in Kenya and Uganda, helping it achieve net zero status eight years ahead of schedule.

East African Breweries Plc, which contributes about 1% of Kenya’s gross domestic product, had a 2030 target to run operations on renewable power. It’s already at 97%, exceeding its target of 95%, according to a sustainability report published Wednesday.

By burning agricultural waste supplied by farmers for steam, the brewer is producing sufficient power to enable it to balance out greenhouse gases produced by its other activities, according to Chief Executive Officer Jane Karuku. It has similar plans for a factory in Moshi, Tanzania, she said in an interview in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

See related article: Germany commits €40 million to African Development Bank Group’s Climate Action Window initiative for fragile African states

In Kenya its plants generate 123,000 megajoules per hour, which will help slash the company’s carbon emissions by 95%, or 34,000 tons a year, according to the sustainability report. 

EABL’s home market of Kenya prides itself for sourcing more than 90% of its power from renewable energy. The use of biomass is relatively nascent as a source of electricity in the nation.

“All employees are working quite hard to develop the backward supply chains because biomass is not quite developed,” Karuku said.

Source: Bloomberg