MONTREAL — Labatt Breweries of Canada is investing $6 million dollars in heat recovery and energy productivity innovation at its Montreal brewery. The enhancement will contribute significantly towards the de-carbonization of the brewing process through reduced energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions.
Specifically, the project will have a significant impact on the energy infrastructure of the plant, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent, optimizing existing energy infrastructure and creating scalable solutions for future innovations in the brewery.
The new heat-recovery system will convert previously unused heat expelled from Labatt’s refrigeration systems and utilize that heat within the pasteurization process in brewing, in lieu of consuming additional energy to generate the heat needed during pasteurization.
“Through this investment and working closely with project partners, we’ve taken significant steps toward decarbonizing our Montreal brewery,” says Sarah Genetti, vice-president of Procurement & Sustainability, Labatt Breweries of Canada. “With this progress towards carbon neutrality in our Montreal operations, we are another step closer to achieving our ambition of net zero by 2040 across all Labatt breweries coast to coast.”
This expenditure comes in conjunction with capital investments in two other Labatt breweries across Canada this year — London, Ont. and St. John’s, Nfld. — to fund sustainable packaging innovations and increased production capacity. These investments combined with the Montreal announcement total $43.1 million invested in operations from coast to coast in 2023.
