National Movement to Turn Food Waste Into Renewable Energy Gains Momentum: Vanguard Renewables Announces The BevPros Has Joined The Farm Powered Strategic Alliance
Posted: August 3, 2022
Houston, TX – July 27, 2022 – The BevPros is one of the latest food and beverage service companies to join the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance (FPSA/Alliance), a collaborative movement to boost food waste reduction and recycling, and expand renewable energy production across America. The Alliance, founded in 2020 by Vanguard Renewables, Unilever, Starbucks, and Dairy Farmers of America aims to avoid or eliminate food waste first and repurpose what can’t be eliminated into renewable energy via farm-based anaerobic digesters.
“The FPSA is a group of like-minded companies committed to doing their part to help mitigate the climate crisis, and we look forward to working with our newest FPSA members to achieve our shared sustainability goals, to divert inedible organic waste and turn that into renewable natural gas,” stated Neil H. Smith, CEO, Vanguard Renewables
The BevPros is the leader in the global beverage logistics industry specializing in beer, wine, and distilled spirits. Its Keg Solutions & Supply Chain Services, headquartered in Texas, is one of 48 offices serving 90 countries. As a shipping and logistics company, they have a unique perspective on environmental impact, from their carbon footprint to the containers they use to ship bulk liquid around the globe.
They also work to provide their customers with environmental impact metrics so they can better understand their carbon footprint and look for ways to reduce their emissions. Additionally, their U.S.-based EcoBev service has helped beverage partners recycle their unsaleable products into biofuel. This was a vital service for brewers in the aftermath of the pandemic lockdown faced with managing millions of gallons of draft beer trapped in retail or various stages of the supply chain.
“When I learned about the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance from founding member, Vanguard Renewables, it became very clear we needed to participate in this alliance. For our customers, this is a way to facilitate lowering their carbon footprint and moving their sustainability goals forward when waste is unavoidable,” said The BevPros Director of Supply Chain Services Malaina Hudson, CPIM.
She added, “This alliance plays an important role in helping our farmers produce their own energy, minimize chemical fertilizers, and generally improve the operating environment of the people who keep food on our tables.”
The BevPros has set a series of tangible environmental goals:
- Pushing for a circular economy for all our equipment
- Partnering with organizations to protect and restore the planet
- Reducing carbon emissions per shipping container by 45% by 2025
- Ensuring that the containers used to ship bulk beverages are fully recyclable and are not sent to landfills
- Recovering and reusing at least 60 percent of bulkheads used in the shipping of products
- For every shipment, the company plants a tree, and to date, they have planted more than 688 million trees
- Created 6,400 Paid days off work for individuals in eight countries to help with the planting
The Farm Powered Strategic Alliance, named one of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas, includes Unilever, Starbucks, Dairy Farmers of America, Vanguard Renewables, Stonyfield Organic, Cabot Creamery, Smithfield Foods, Food Tank (a leading NGO), Chobani, Kikkoman, Schreiber Foods, Polar Beverages, and now The BevPros. The Alliance offers U.S. food manufacturers, service providers and retailers a circular approach to reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of CO2 emissions and provides a pathway toward a carbon-neutral footprint. Members commit to recycle unavoidable food and beverage waste on farms where it is combined with farm manure in a Farm Powered® anaerobic digester to generate renewable natural gas (RNG). Hosting a Farm Powered anaerobic digester provides farm partners with a diversified income stream in addition to a by-product of the operation: a low-carbon fertilizer that host farms can spread in lieu of chemical fertilizers and which supports regenerative agriculture practices.
“If we are to reach the United States’ ambitious goals to reduce net GHG emissions by 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, it is imperative that private industry lead the way. That is why we formed the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance, and what our members are working towards every day,” says Smith.
Vanguard Renewables recently announced that a fund managed by BlackRock Real Assets has acquired the company. BlackRock Real Assets will partner with Vanguard Renewables’ management team to build upon the company’s market-leading track record and drive its next phase of growth, including both its expansion of the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance and its plans to commission more than 150 anaerobic digesters to produce renewable natural gas across the country by 2026.
To learn more about the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance, visit this link.