Key highlights from the 2024 Sustainability Statement:

• Strong performance across targets: Across the board, we saw solid ESG improvements, including a 3% reduction in relative value chain emissions since 2022, a 15% reduction in lost-time accidents since 2023, and a 76% collection and recycling rate for our bottles and cans.
  
  
• Progress built on partnerships: This year’s ESG performance is built on a foundation of strong commitments to our targets and years of hard work to drive progress. Partnerships and industry-wide collaboration are proving more important than ever in achieving results at scale, particularly in crucial areas such as agriculture and packaging.

Increasing ESG integration into the business

During the past years we have made a considerable effort to embed ESG within the business, with a continuous focus on measuring our non-financial data. This year’s combined Annual Report is an important milestone, which showcases this alignment in action and brings a new level of transparency and detail to our ESG reporting. 

“We have made great strides in recent years to weave ESG into the fabric of the business, ensuring that this essential work gets properly measured, tracked and embedded into our business planning processes. Launching our first combined Annual Report is a great milestone on this journey, and a key enabler for reaching our targets,” says Ulrica Fearn, CFO at Carlsberg Group. 

Solid ESG performance in 2024 builds on strong foundation

We have made steady progress during 2024 in every area of our ESG agenda, building on the foundation of our ESG programme, Together Towards ZERO and Beyond. 

Performance highlights include:

• ZERO Carbon Footprint: Achieved a 2% reduction in absolute carbon emissions at breweries since 2023 (58% since 2015) and a 3% reduction in relative value chain emissions since 2022.
  
  
• ZERO Farming Footprint: Continued piloting the transition to regenerative agriculture in France, UK, Finland, increasing the amount of barley grown with some regenerative practices in our brews in these markets. A new agreement has been made in Denmark for barley grown with some regenerative practices, set to go into our brews in 2025.
  
  
• ZERO Packaging Waste: 76% of our bottles and cans are collected and recycled, up 4% from 2019. 43% of the material in our packaging is from recycled content, up from 34% in 2022. 94% of our packaging is recyclable, reusable or renewable.
  
  
• ZERO Water Waste: Established new water replenishment partnerships in Asia and replenished 16% of the water consumed at breweries in high-risk areas in India, Cambodia, China and Laos.
  
  
• ZERO Irresponsible Drinking: Increased the share of no- and low-alcohol brews to 30% of global sales, up from 28.5% in 2023 and 27% in 2021.
  
  
• ZERO Accidents Culture: Achieved a 15% reduction in lost-time accidents since 2023 (69% since 2015).
  
  
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Reached the 2024 target of 30% women in senior leadership roles, with substantial growth in ExCom representation.

“Our performance in 2024 is due in large part to the long-standing commitment to our ESG agenda, and our focus on creating impact through partnerships and collaboration. A prime example is in the area of packaging. We could not achieve a 76% collection and recycling rate of our bottles and cans without years of hard work in industry-wide partnerships for efficient deposit return schemes and recycling infrastructure across our markets. This is really what we mean when we say Together Towards ZERO and Beyond,” says Simon Boas Hoffmeyer, VP Sustainability & ESG at Carlsberg Group.