Pernod Ricard takes part in Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a symbolic gesture to draw the attention of policy-makers, corporations and individuals to climate issues. For one hour people all over the world will turn of the lights.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney at the initiative of WWF Australia. In 2007 over two million inhabitants and 2,000 businesses turned off their lights. The news spread around the world and last year 4,000 cities in 88 countries participated. It has now become the world’s largest manifestation for the climate, and this year over 1 billion people worldwide are expected to celebrate Earth Hour together.
”For Pernod Ricard Nordic reducing our impact on the climate is a top environmental priority”, says Mikael Sundström, CSR & Sustainability Manager at Pernod Ricard Nordic. That’s why we are currently reviewing all parts of the business to map and measure our carbon footprint. Getting a detailed view of the sources and magnitude of Carbon dioxide emissions will motivate us to further develop innovative solutions having these emissions reduced.
Initiatives on the Nordic level mainly targets energy consumption and logistics. “To help reduce emissions, Pernod Ricard Sweden has established a logistics partnership with Carlsberg Sweden. By joint-distributing our products, we have reduced emissions from distribution by more than 50%,” says Rolf Hagström, Manager Insurance and logistics support at Pernod Ricard Nordic.”On top of this we have reduced emissions from our transports going from Svendborg to Sweden by about 70% when choosing railroad transport instead of road transport. Another innovative solution we are using is to ship bulk wine from Australia in “flexitanks”, a kind of huge giant plastic bags, and bottle the wine in Europe. By not shipping the wine in bottles, the weight of the cargo is significantly reduced, hence also reducing our emissions from sea freight.” Rolf continues. “Last but not least all sites the Nordic region only purchase electricity from renewable sources”.
“Earth Hour is not just about turning off the lights. It is an opportunity to reflect on the dependence of electricity in modern society and think about smart ways to use energy efficiently and reduce CO2 emissions”, says Mikael Sundström.
Read more about Earth Hour at www.earthhour.org