NATURE
Beer production only requires four base materials: water, yeast, hops and barley. Like many sectors, the beer and drinks trade is focusing on ways to cut emissions and reduce its environmental impact.
Heineken UK brews over 1.3 billion pints each year and supplies 80 % of UK pubs. As part of its sustainability efforts, the brewer is looking at how it grows its barley, most of which comes from British farms. In the summer, Heineken announced a new sustainable malting barley programme to support farmers in England and Scotland and scale up regenerative farming. Participating farmers receive customised support to implement methods such as cover cropping, reduced soil disturbance and diverse crop rotations.
Beyond supporting more sustainable farming practices, beer producers can also localise supply chains to a much higher degree than many other sectors. Indeed, beer often has strong cultural links to local communities, especially in the UK.
“ Consumers typically place greater value on local provenance, heritage and ingredients, making regenerative agriculture a natural extension of the brand story,” says Izzy Ashman, Sustainability Manager at Asahi UK, a major brewer behind iconic brands such as Fuller’ s Pride and Peroni.
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Heineken’ s regenerative agriculture programme – what it means to our breweries
54 October 2026