Lying on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula, Qingdao is a picturesque vista of red-tiled roofs nestled between green hills and a blue sea. Famous pier Zhanqiao, Huiquan Bay, and Great Eight Passes are the symbols of the city. But much more get their first taste of Qingdao through Tsingtao Beer.

As one of China's oldest beer brewers, started by German settlers in the early 1900s, Tsingtao Brewery Group is famous across the country as a "time-honored brand." The beer is beloved by millions in China and throughout Asia.

However, pressures from developed countries to introduce carbon tariffs and carbon trading have hampered the international competitiveness of Chinese beer, including Tsingtao.

Tech innovation

How to tackle this challenge? Jin Zhiguo's answer is that Tsingtao Beer is set to shift to a low-carbon growth pattern for its future development. Jin, Chairman of the Qingdao-based beer maker, explained that such a business pattern aims to explore a low pollution, low energy consumption, high-yield growth model through technology innovation.

"There is still a large gap between China's brewing technology and that in advanced countries, particularly in the area of energy consumption. Therefore, we are making efforts in moving up the industry value chain through all aspects, from sourcing of raw materials, R&D, to production and sales," he said. And the company has done a good job in energy saving, according to him.

As early as 2003, the brewer incorporated a strategy of low energy consumption into its brewing technology development plan. Since then, more than 50 subsidiary breweries use state-of-the-art brewing technology and apply environmental considerations. During the past three years, Tsingtao Beer has earmarked more than 200 million yuan ($29.8 million) in energy saving and emission reduction, forming its low-carbon management system on technology development, product design and manufacturing.

Data released by the company shows these helped reduce consumption of 43,614 tons of standard coal, 2.77 million tons of water, and carbon dioxide emissions by 125,000 tons in 2009 alone.

Awareness

In addition to continuing innovation of its corporate structure, operations and technology, strong environmental awareness has taken root at Tsingtao Beer.

Tsingtao people believe every grain of wheat, every drop of water, and every kilowatt-hour of electricity counts. They are not only used for making beer, but also resources used for promoting the circular economy.

The brewer implements the concept well into its business. At Tsingtao Brewery, production wastes like beer lees and malt culms are used as animal feed; wastewater is used for watering plants after advanced treatment; and carbon dioxide from coal usage is recycled back to beer refilling production.

It continues to develop low-carbon solutions at this year's Shanghai World Expo. Compared with the hype of other enterprises that are eager to promote their brand on an international scale, Tsingtao Beer, as the Chinese brewery industry leader, however, is keeping a much lower profile. It made a presence in the Zero Carbon Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, where it contributed lamps and artifacts made out of recycled beer bottles while one can gain drinking experience of low carbon beer.