Crown is said to be the first metal packaging manufacturer to use renewable power in 100% of its US and Canadian beverage can plants

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Crown has activated renewable power across US and Canadian beverage can plants. (Credit: Crown Holdings, Inc.)

Metal packaging manufacturer Crown Holdings has activated renewable power across its beverage can facilities in the US and Canada.

Crown is currently operating its 14 US and Canadian beverage can plants by using renewable energy, which is delivered by Longroad Energy under 15-year wind power virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA).

As part of VPPA, Crown’s UK manufacturing facilities are under similar transition and 27.5% of the firm’s global operations are currently using renewable electricity.

The increasing usage of alternative power sources is a significant step in Crown’s plan to deploy 60% renewable electricity by 2030, 90% by 2040 and 100% by 2050.

The latest move also supports Crown’s Twentyby30 initiative, a comprehensive sustainability programme that helps to solve climate issues.

The action also reinforces Twentyby30 goal to minimise Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within its global operations, thereby enabling to target a 50% combined reduction in absolute scope 1 (fuel) and scope 2 (electricity) emissions.

The VPPA, based on a Texas-based wind farm, generates over 440,000MWh of electricity that helps to avoid more than 310,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

According to Crown, the renewable power offsets 100% of the energy usage within the firm’s US Canadian beverage plants that account more than 20% of its global scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions.

Crown global sustainability and regulatory affairs vice president Dr John Rost said: “This VPPA, which makes us the first in our industry to complete an energy transition for all U.S. and Canadian beverage can manufacturing facilities, is a major milestone on our journey to utilize 100% renewable electricity by 2050 and will play a critical role in reducing GHG emissions from our operations.

“Making a pledge to the RE100 initiative, setting science-based emission reduction targets and now implementing wind power across our U.S. and Canadian beverage plants—these are all actions we view as critical for driving measurable progress against climate change for our planet.”

In January this year, Crown announced a new commitment of 20% reduction in water usage by 2025.

As part of its new environmental sustainability goal, the company will decrease the usage of water in its global operations by 20% from 2019 levels by the end of 2025.