Your next cold Bud could be delivered in a renewable-energy semi
Anheuser-Busch will soon transform a chunk of its semi fleet to run on renewable natural gas.
Beep beep, low-emission beer coming through.
The carbon footprint attached to future bottles and cans of beer from Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch will be substantially lower.
In an announcement Wednesday, the company said it plans to transition 30% of its semi truck fleet to run on renewable natural gas, which comes out to around 180 trucks . Six years ago, the St. Louis-based brewer started swapping diesel-powered semis for ones that run on compressed natural gas, but Anheuser-Busch noted RNG burns even cleaner. American Natural Gas and US Gain will supply the RNG powertrains.
RNG is a form of natural gas that's "captured from sources like dairies, wastewater treatment plants and landfills," according to producer SoCalGas. It's effectively a greenhouse gas that would be going into the atmosphere anyway, although it's hard to say if burning it to get your beer to the store is any worse for climate change.
As well as the RNG transition, the older CNG-powered trucks will also receive updated powertrains from Agility Fuel Solutions to help make them even greener. As part of the company's 2025 sustainability goals, Anheuser-Busch plans to cut emissions by 25%. The updated and newly outfitted semis will reduce emissions by 70% compared to diesel-powered semis, or the equivalent of 66,000 cars taken off US roads.
That's not all, though. The Budweiser brewer began testing a Nikola hydrogen-electric semi last year, which brought the cold brew to a storage facility. There, a BYD electric truck brought the beer to its final destination, the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. BYD semis also entered the company's fleet in California to haul beer to four different destinations. While Nikola gets its operations off the ground, Anheuser-Busch has already placed an order for 800 of the hydrogen-electric semi trucks.
