In November, Jorge Gil-Martinez made a very successful presentation of the LIFE REFRESHMENT technology innovation in the high level EU event “Innov’8”, as part of the “INNOVATION IN HEALTH, NUTRITION AND LIFESTYLE” panel.
The global food system is under increasing pressure. Factors like heightened weather unpredictability and population increase add insecurity to food production schedules. In Europe, consumers and policy-makers continue to put pressure on producers to more sustainably plant, produce, process, label and distribute food and drinks. European governments are responding with actions like France’s Special Convention on food or Europe’s proposed Common Agricultural Policy.
On the 4th of November, the 4th annual Sustainable Food and Beverage Conference was held on November 7th 2017 in the Ricoh Arena, Coventry. This event was organized by the industry leading ‘Food and Drink Business Europe’, who frequently organizes food manufacturing events.
Ask most beer lovers to reel off the ingredients of their favorite tipple and they will probably say malted barley, hops and water. All present and correct; however, the brewing process would not be complete without another vital – but often overlooked – ingredient: yeast.
On the 30th of May a networking session was held between representatives of the LIFE BEVERAGE, LIFE REFRESHMENT and LIFE OPTIMELT projects. LIFE OPTIMELT (LIFE CCM/NL/000121) was met in the LIFE kick-off meeting of the LIFE BEVERAGE project.
On June 20, AB InBev was the proud sponsor of Makers’ Town, held in Brussels Autoworld. This unique event supported by the European Commission brings together Europe’s “Makers”, a new wave of entrepreneurs and Do-It-Yourself experts, along with business leaders and European policy makers to showcase and share their most innovative ideas.
Every year, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment organizes the EU Green Week to debate and discuss European environmental policy. This year the EU has been supporting nature, environment and climate action for 25 years. To celebrate this milestone the LIFE community is organizing a series of events around Europe during May 2017.
This week, we launched the first beer train in Belgium. The train will transport Jupiler by rail between our brewery in Jupille, Wallonia, and the Delhaize distribution centre in Ninove in East Flanders. Once this project runs at full capacity, it will remove the equivalent of 5000 lorries from the roads every year.
On 18 May we had the pleasure to welcome a delegation of the European Commission to our offices for a very successful meeting and tour of the Leuven brewery. The delegation consisted of 15 members of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment.
On the 1st of July, we launched two projects with co-funding of the European Commission: LIFE BEVERAGE and LIFE REFRESHMENT. The EU grants co-funding to projects with European added value supporting environmental, nature and climate action projects throughout the EU. These projects are hence completely in line with our ambition to contribute to a better world and continue to work on the pillars of sustainability and social responsibility throughout our entire value chain.