From the Greta isn’t 21 yet department comes just what everyone…oh, wait…wants?
This was for Earth Day, back in April but we missed it. Because, well, it was such important news. But given what marketing blunders have been made recently at Anheuser-Busch, I thought we should know. Press release below. h/t to Able Windsor, Jim Lakely.
ON THE WAY TO A NET ZERO FUTURE, BUD LIGHT NEXT WILL RECOGNIZE CLIMATE NEUTRAL MILESTONE BY PURCHASING ALL ELECTRICITY AT THIS YEAR’S LEAGUE OF LEGENDS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES IN HOUSTON FROM CLEAN, RENEWABLE SOURCES
NEW YORK, NY – April 14, 2022 – Today, as Earth Day 2022 approaches, Bud Light NEXT is proud to announce it has completed the process to become Climate Neutral Certified. By measuring and offsetting last year’s carbon emissions and implementing reduction plans for future emissions, Bud Light NEXT has met the independent certification standard from Climate Neutral, a nonprofit organization working with brands and consumers to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. The new designation comes just two months after hitting store shelves as Anheuser-Busch’s first-ever zero carb beer.
Climate Neutral’s certification builds on internationally recognized standards for carbon measurement, neutrality, and reduction. When Climate Neutral certifies a brand such as Bud Light NEXT, it means the brand has chosen to be accountable for the greenhouse gas emissions generated in the production and operations of their goods or services. To showcase its commitment, Bud Light NEXT will proudly feature the Climate Neutral certification on its packaging beginning in June.
“When we launched Bud Light NEXT, we wanted to bring a beer to market that was all about breaking barriers, just like the consumers it was brewed for,” said Andy Goeler, Vice President of Marketing, Bud Light. “We have a huge opportunity with Bud Light NEXT to take bold action that creates a better future for our consumers and the next generations to come, and our Climate Neutral certification is a big step in that journey for us.”
In honor of this milestone, Bud Light will also be working with its leading esports partner – League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) – to offset 100% of the electricity used during the LCS Spring Finals in Houston, TX at NRG Stadium taking place April 23-24 with clean, renewable sources from wind power.
Today’s announcement for Bud Light NEXT builds on recent actions that Bud Light has taken to protect the environment and encourage consumers and partners to do the same.
· During the 2021 NFL Season, Bud Light was the first major beer brand to join the How2Recycle® labeling program to educate and inspire consumers to recycle their beer bottles, cans and packaging.
· Ahead of Super Bowl 56, Bud Light NEXT teamed up with innovative fleet partners Nikola Corporation and BYD Motors to conduct a zero-emissions beer delivery of Bud Light NEXT.
“We’re excited that Bud Light NEXT is joining our movement, as one of hundreds of brands that have earned the Climate Neutral Certified designation,” said Austin Whitman, CEO of Climate Neutral. “Brewers such as Anheuser-Busch, alongside their brands like Bud Light NEXT, have a tremendous reach with their operations and their consumers. Their involvement is a proof point that climate change is now an issue of widespread importance. And their actions show that we all have ways to respond immediately and visibly to it by avoiding, removing, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
With this milestone, Bud Light NEXT is not only Anheuser-Busch’s first-ever zero carb beer but is also positioned to become the company’s first net zero carbon footprint beer. Bud Light NEXT is just one part of the company’s larger ambition to achieve net zero by 2040 through industry-leading sustainability initiatives.
To follow the latest on Bud Light NEXT, visit BudLight.com and follow Bud Light on Facebook at Facebook.com/BudLight, on Twitter at @BudLight, and on Instagram at @BudLight.
So another reason, apart from the taste (or lack of taste, really) to not drink Bud Light?
What do you mean lack of taste? Don’t you like the taste of watered down water?
Watered down water is Coors Light.
Wasn’t that once described by CAMRA as “the nearest thing to nothing in a glass”?
But it is Rocky Mountain Spring Water that is watered down with nothing to taste like nothing. Isn’t that what marketing is all about?
Climate neutral or climate neutered?
Spay and Neuter your Trans Chipdren
Wouldn’t be a taste issue, to be climate neutral popping one open should release zero CO2. Any beer without CO2 would leave me flat
Yes, a read of the above article doesn’t reveal that Anheuser-Busch or the “independent” (follow the money) certification group Climate Neutral considered the distribution of CO2 throughout the lower atmosphere due to the CO2 bubbles that give beer a nice “head”.
I read about offsetting the “greenhouse gas emissions generated in the production and operations of their goods or services”, but nothing about consumption of the output product.
I think it would be very telling, indeed, to see how Climate Neutral manages the full life cycle accounting for Bud Light NEXT’s carbon emissions . . . but then again, why spoil the virtue-signaling, feel-good marketing pitch that has been so carefully, ahem, crafted?
I’m kind of hoping that they get Dylan Mulvaney to replace Greta or to help her promote climate change. “A real woman to pronounce that climate change is real.”
Persuade Greta that the reason for her unhappiness is that she’s actually a trans man and you could have a woke couple for any and all occasions!
Those “light” or “lite” labels always lead me to think about emasculated “hes”, “shes” or “its”.
/s No LGBetc.+ pun intended s/
It’s going around that Bud Light won’t be offered in bottles because its customers now prefer to take it in the can.
How dumb does a marketing department that sells a CO2 infused drink have to be, to promote that CO2 drink as somehow carbon neutral?
I don’t believe that the Bud Light marketing dept is known for its intelligence. Harvard educated though.
The NYC marketing “experts” will see you now…..for that corporate/investor lobotomy.
Climate Neutral, what the hell is that, and wouldn’t Climate Positive be better if you are making stuff up?
‘Climate Excused’ or perhaps ‘Climate Exempt’ or even ‘Climate Justified’.
all the more starting to sound like religious terms
“Climate Neutral” . . . a phrase appropriate to the fact that USCRN data shows there has been no statistically significant warming or cooling of Earth’s lower atmosphere over the last 18 years. See the second graph down on the right-hand side of this webpage.
New! Now with zero carbs, same zero taste.
Fermentation makes CO2. Inquiring minds want to know where they get their offsets from, to end up at net zero. Hydroelectric power to make the aluminum in the cans is greenwashing…
It has ZERO taste, ZERO CO2, so Tasteless and Flat
Bud Light, now with estrogen, would take care of that.
Unfortunately consumption of Bud Light won’t give you 6 pack abs but mass consumption could give you Kegger Abs
Its called “Generous contributions for the certification company to do very poor math”
the aluminum ore has to be dug out of the ground with diesel powered machines, then diesel powered trucks deliver it to the mill
by the way, I have some UK friends here in Woke-achuetts- and the way they say this metal is- owl-you-minium
for some reason it sounds funny to me
If it sounds funny, Joseph, you should stop putting it in your ear.
It is perfectly correct to spell and pronounce it Aluminum, which is how it’s done in North America, or Aluminium, which is how it is done everywhere else in the world. As I said, either is perfectly fine.
Aluminum is highly recycled. In order to make the cans, it needs to be soft so it’s almost pure aluminum. They probably recycle better than 90% of it which is a good thing because the real power is used to smelt it. Ripping the oxygen out takes massive amounts of electricity so aluminum processing is located near cheap energy. Most of the time that involves large scale Hydro.
Stuff You Should Know podcast said 75% recycled.
NEXT ?
I suspect they gave away more cans than they sold.
Presumably this is from the same genius that thought having Dylan Mulvaney on board would increase sales?
Was thinking the same. Real women of genius, not.
“NEXT we’ll be replacing The Budweiser Clydesdales with electric golf carts!”
(I looked for a picture but couldn’t find one.) 😎
Well if biodiesel is ok, then the Clydesdales run on very unrefined, raw, biodiesel – so raw it’s still grass/grain/oats!
Good idea. The creative are making a lot of good parody commercials, sample below.
very good;-)
Interesting attempt to shift focus but still led by the Ivy League expertocracy.
Next attempt will be a support Ukraine or a Covid vaccination “education” commemorative can.
Bud Light LAST would be great for a jab chaser.
I also refuse to buy “Organic” items in the grocery store.
One winter few years ago I saw a bag of ice melt near a door.
It was labeled “Organic”.
I guess it identified as an organ that could melt ice.
(Along with the usual ice melting chemicals like salt, the label did list urea as one of its ingredients.)
“Don’t eat the yellow snow!”
It might be “organic”.
I use a lot of organic chemicals in my work.
Funny thing, there are no inorganic sections in the supermarket.
It might be a small section, salt, water.
I remember a ladies face makeup commercial from the 1980’s that claimed the product contained …. no chemicals? Yeah, they said it. I remember who, but I won’t create a liability situation here.
Zero Carbs with undisclosed offsets processed through shared/shifted responsibility.
Will probably win some sort of UN prize for supporting the movement, which is what this is really about. People with little else useful to do with their time signing on for a popular movement. Let’s all give applause together now to Boo hoo Budweiser.
Nothing but rank virtue signaling, of absolute zero utility.
Now they are trying to get in trouble with Apple. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, it was because Apple purchased NEXT to get the operating system they had developed. Steve may no longer be around but I am pretty sure the legal department has kept the copyright on the NEXT name current. Their legal team doesn’t miss a beat and copyrights or patents anything they can.
My daughter is a senior copyright IPR attorney. They dodge Apple’s NEXT copyright two ways. No confusing an operating system with a ‘beer’. And the ‘Bud Light Next’ insures it, because the thing is never marketed as just Next.
I understand that point of view however Apple got into it twice with the Beatles over the use of the name Apple. First was when they originally wanted the name and the agreement was that they wouldn’t use the name for anything related to music and the second time was after they opened their online music store.
It really depends on how the name is protected but after the second round with the Beatles, I suspect they have protected it from anything including an act of god.
The ‘e’ was lowercase so it was ‘NeXT’ (apparently to emphasize that it was one of the open-source flavors of UNIX?). The system software was called ‘NeXTStep’, with the software shells above the kernal written in Objective-C. Wiki sez NeXTStep is ‘obsolete’, but to this day all the myriad of Mac OS X system calls are all still prefaced with ‘NS’. NeXT had Display PostScript which was expanded into the Quartz 2D rendering package in OS X.
It was a university copy of the original code. Most of those are restricted but this one slipped through the cracks. It never went obsolete but it evolved into the current OS X. The comments in the code still indicate its origin. For a while it was sold to the government for special projects on the IBM PC products then Apple bought it for the Power PC line.
I haven’t looked at any of the copyright information but I am pretty sure Apples lawyers will as soon as they hear about this. It may not go anywhere but it will be interesting to see what happens.
When Apple released OS X, virtually overnight they became the world’s largest purveyor of Unix software, by far.
Do you mean BSD?
The history of that is far more complicated than “university copy”.
Some of it was based on an early Bell Labs version of UNIX. Ken Thompson (hallowed be his name) from Bell Labs spent a 12 month sabbatical at Berkeley. It then diverged considerably, and added a lot of features which weren’t in the AT&T version.
You could say that AT&T and BSD were parallel streams of development, which were merged into SysVR4 by AT&T and SUN Microsystems.
There are still a number of parallel BSD projects running, adding some nice features.
I tried to look up BL Next market share. It is so low it is not separately reported anywhere. Launched for Super Bowl 2022, the then advertising says ‘Next omits barley and hops’. So it isn’t a beer at all, it is a failed hard seltzer comprising water, and fermented cooked rice plus a little malt for the low 4% ABV. Translation, minuscule flavor and minuscule market share. Brought to you by the marketing geniuses at Transheuser Busch.
Nobody cared if it was carbon neutral.
I did a little more research. The leading brands of hard seltzer all have ABV from 4.5% to 8%. So BL Next isn’t very hard, either.
Might be good for enemas though.
CLIMATE NEUTRAL!? HA! Very narrowly defined, and with a nod and a wink, and not counting all the FF used to mine and make aluminum, and transportation. Ignore 99% of it and twist the other 1% and then it is climate neutral. Virtue signalers are hypocrites.
right – just like EVs have zero carbon emissions
missing the mark again – bet if they took a poll of bud light drinkers both of them would say that there is no climate emergency and CO2 has noting to do with the climate – their customers are way more knowledgeable than their executives
Are there actually people around who would swallow that shit…
I live on a gravel road in a very rural area in VT. There are a lot of hardworking people on low incomes as well as stupid tourists.Some have a nasty habit of throwing beer cans out of the their vehicles on the way home even though there is a $0.05 deposit on every can/bottle. We collect them on walks. There is a pattern which varies between BL and Hard Cider. Lately BL is losing to Hard Tea. We managed to fund a small portion of our grandsons’ college tuitions with these returns. Keep on chugging in the real world…
Most AB/Inbev beers are pretty bad. Most major American beers, regardless of the brewer, are pretty bad for that matter. AB/Inbev has just given me another excuse, as if I needed one, to avoid their beers, aside from there general awfulness.
I got spoiled by good beers during my almost 6 years living in Munich. But back in the US, Sam Adams is very good, and some local craft brews are great.
I was spoiled by good beers in Germany, also. Sam Adams is so so, I like their Oktoberfest and the Summer Ale is ok, also. Craft Breweries are hit or miss. I’ve had some excellent beers at craft breweries and, I’ve had some truly awful beers. My go to for a mass-produced beer is Shiner Bock and my favorite craft brewery, so far, is Dead Beach in El Paso, Tx. The Great Crescent in Aurora, In, is another good craft brewery.
My Wisconsin dairy farm favorite is New Glarus. Brewery is only about 30 miles away, so the local store stock is always fresh. Their Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel are both excellent. (Lager and Pilsner, respectively)
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Wisconsin. If I get up near Madison, I’ll have to remember to try it.
I personally like a wonderful dark brew called Dragon’s Milk from New Holland Brewing. It is really a desert beer as it is to powerful and heavy for dringing with a meal. But excellent way to finish a great meal. Best on tap, but available in bottles too!
I like some stouts, just have to be careful due the ABV. Dragon’s Milk sounds interesting but, I’m generally not a fan of bourbon barrel beers. If I get up to Michigan, I’ll have to give it a try.
They appear to have wide distribution.
https://www.newhollandbrew.com/find-our-beer/
I looked it up. The closest place that sells it is about a 1.5 hour drive from my location. Not close enough to make a special trip but, when I’m in the area, I might pick some up.
Since I don’t drink beer, I guess I can claim to be at net zero – or better.
Not if you eat bread or guzzle soft drinks.
https://nailheadtom.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-components-of-agw.html
There was a time when people were so serious about their beer that they wrote a prayer to the goddess of beer. My what a difference a few millennia makes. This was written in 2600 BCE. The Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco actually tried to replicate the recipe.
Hymn to Ninkasi
Borne of the flowing water,
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,
Borne of the flowing water,
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,
Having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you,
Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its walls for you,
Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.
Ninkasi, your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.
You are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics,
Ninkasi, you are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date] – honey,
You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,
You are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,
You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.
You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes,
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes,
You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort,
Brewing [it] with honey [and] wine
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
Ninkasi, (…)(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
The filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on a large collector vat.
When you pour out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.
So, What does it cost to be “Carbon Neutral” when you buy carbon credits. Well, that depends on how many credits you need to buy and we don’t know that. But we can make a SWAG at it based on a few facts. 1 Metric Ton (MT) of CO2 is equivalent to 406 gal of fuel (approximately, depending on the density of fuel and the carbon content of the fuel).
CarbonCredits.com lists the current value of credits per MT.
CarbonCredits.com Live Carbon PricesLastChangeYTDCompliance Markets
European Union €92.98
California $29.26
Australia (AUD) $34.50
New Zealand (NZD) $60.00
South Korea $9.16
China $8.11
Voluntary Markets
Aviation Industry Offset $1.11
Nature Based Offset $1.52
Tech Based Offset $0.76
So, the cheapest offsets are $0.019 per gal of fuel equivalent so the cost per can of bear is probably 1/10th to 1/100th that cost, or essentially no cost at all to make that claim. How wonderful is it that we can purchase our way to climate neutral.
Here are the CC Compliance Credits normalized by the price of gold in the local currency:
European Union €92.98 / 1786 = 0.05 oz
California $29.26 /1957 = 0.01 oz
Australia (AUD) $34.50 /2850 = 0.01 oz
New Zealand (NZD) $60.00 /3150 = 0.02 oz
South Korea $9.16 /9750 = 9.394871794871795e-4
China $8.11 /13952 = 5.812786697247706e-4
Interesting.
CC Price
Gold Price
ANY cost of a CC Compliance Credit (a “carbon-offset” credit) is too much.
OOPS .. there goes another $2.5 billion in lost sales. !
Something like this was inevitable. Now I can hardly wait for climate-friendly Kraft Dinner and IPCC-approved Heinz Ketchup. And how about carbon-neutral Whoppers at Burger King?
Meatless Whoppers…Impossible
their sponsoring of the tranny influencer or their net-zero commitment would have had zero effect on their sales if they had simply NOT trashed talked their customers … period … it was the trash talking that got them in trouble and they have done NOTHING to apologize for it nor have they fired the VP who trashed their customers …
“their sponsoring of the tranny influencer…”
I’m not so sure of that. There are an awful lot of folks that are fed up with the LBG… whatever, alphabet soup activism.
“…if they had simply NOT trashed talked their customers…”
That certainly didn’t help them.
Both exec’s have ‘decided’ to take a leave of absence “fully supported by the company.” Neither they, nor the ad agency’s responsible for the Mulvaney mistake and the NEXT brand, have been fired as yet.
But there is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on our global climate. But the manufacture and transport ot their products still involve the use of fossil fuels. Their employees wear clothes and eat food whose production and transport has involved the use of fossil fuels There employees also exhale CO2. They make use of buildings and road way show construction and maintenance has involved the use of fossil fuels. Clearly they are no carbon neutral.
Because if anything is going to get their core consumers back, it’s this?
It’s peak green-marketing twaddle. First Division.
What is the name of the company that sells electrons guaranteed to come only from a specified generation technology? Are those pesky little electrons given an individual label when they are fed into the grid? (It would be great if they could.)
On top of that, they are promising to do it only during the competition in Houston. Why not every day?
Finally, I recall a Professor saying that when a research project has failed completely, you need to start the publication report with the word “Towards…[xyz]”.
Net Zero taste drink in a Net Zero can….
All marketed in the Energy (NRH) Stadium
In Houston…..of all places
Would be interested to hear how it went down with the locals!
“This was for Earth Day, back in April but we missed it. Because, well, it was such important news.”
Funniest WUWT line in ages. Laughing out loud, literally. Thanks AW.
How about CO2 free beer
This sounds to me as an idea that will halve the share price again!
Perhaps they are recycling the result of drinking for a second time around? With added CO2 of course. /s
so zero carbon..we misse d it
zerocarbs? who cares
and zero sales thanks to transhauser idiocy
now thats gone so well hasnt it?
With apologies to Dire Straits, this is Anheuser-Busch’s plan to allow brain-numbed progressive buy nothing for something.
I sincerely hope they go bust.
How can they ‘ select ‘ electricity.
PURCHASING ALL ELECTRICITY AT THIS YEAR’S LEAGUE OF LEGENDS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES IN HOUSTON FROM CLEAN, RENEWABLE SOURCES
If Anheuser-Busch really wanted “carbon neutral” they should use nitrogen rather than CO2 to fizzy-late this beer (alla Guinness Stout)
they should use nitrogen rather than CO2 to fizzy-late this beer
Which beer are you referring to? Guinness is the only one you mentioned.
Budwiser makes all their products with imported rice from China. The bunker fuel burned on ships to import the rice is never mentioned.
Climate change causes media execs and media consultants to self-destruct large corporations, their investors, and independent distributors. The science says so.