The postcard pretty village of Göss, just two hours from Vienna, is home to 25,000 people, the pristine Mur River which leads out into the Danube, and yes, lots and lots of beer.
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But it isn’t just fine quality beer that’s brewing in the village.
Göss is also home to the Gösser Brewery, the world’s first large-scale zero-carbon brewery.
Owned and operated by the Heineken Group, the world’s third-largest beer maker, the Gösser Brewery relaunched as a zero-carbon facility in June.
The brewery produces 1.4 million bottles of beer every day using a mix of entirely renewable energy sources, including solar, hydropower, biogas and waste heat.
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We want to help our other breweries and the wider brewing industry make renewable energy part of their energy mix, just as we have done.
Andreas Werner, brew master, Gösser Brewery
This has brought its carbon emissions down from 3,000 tonnes a year to zero.
Andreas Werner, brew master at Gösser Brewery said: “Our Göss brewery may be in a small town but our goal was to make a big impact. I am proud of what we have achieved for the Heineken Group and want to help our other breweries and the wider brewing industry make renewable energy part of their energy mix, just as we have done.”
The brewery is helping Heneiken achieve its commitment to a 40 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions from production by 2020, which is enshrined in the company’s Brewing a Better World sustainability strategy.
To power its production, the Gösser Brewery uses 100 per cent hydropower sources for electricity, 35 per cent from biomass for heating, 10 per cent from bio gas from waste water, 3-5 per cent from a solar plant, and 50 per cent from biogas generated from the spent grain fermentation tank.
For this innovative move towards sustainability, the brewery won the EU Sustainable Energy Award and Citizens Choice Award in June. The awards recognise innovative projects in energy efficiency and renewables in Europe.
“The Göss brewery is the stand-out example of this work and our commitment to sustainability,” Roland Verstappen, Heineken’s director for public and government affairs said.
