Three More Breweries to Get Megawatt-class Solar Panels via the PPA Model

● Innovative way to reduce emissions and costs to be applied to three breweries in January
● Breweries utilizing new solar power systems to reduce emissions expanded to seven
● Concrete action in line with RE100 – 100% renewable energy use – targets

TOKYO, Tuesday September21, 2021 - Kirin Brewery Company, Limited (Kirin Brewery), a subsidiary of Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (Kirin Holdings), will introduce solar power under the PPA*1 model to three of its breweries (Hokkaido Chitose, Toride, and Okayama breweries) from January 2022 in order to promote business operations using renewable energy. This will reduce GHG*2 emissions by approximately 1,600 tons per year and increase the ratio of renewable energy to electricity used by Kirin Brewery as a whole from the current level of approximately 28% to approximately 30%.
*1: PPA: Power Purchase Agreement. PPA model is a business model through which the PPA supplier installs solar power generation equipment on the end user’s premises or facility rooftop free of charge, and the power generated is then sold to the end user.
*2: Greenhouse gases

The introduction and operation of this initiativePDF：530KB has been completed at the first four breweries (Sendai, Nagoya, Shiga and Kobe Breweries) since March of this year, and the number of breweries subject to the initiative has now been expanded to seven. Kirin Holdings will accelerate its efforts with a view to introducing large-scale solar power generation equipment to all of its domestic breweries by next year. Going forward, Kirin Holdings will continue to promote the introduction of renewable energy at all of the Kirin Group's business sites, with the aim of swiftly replacing all of the electricity used in the Kirin Group's operations with renewable energy in the future and achieving RE100 (https://www.there100.org)*3.
*3: RE100 is an international initiative for the environment that is made up of companies aiming to achieve 100% renewable energy use. The Kirin Group joined the RE100 initiative in November of last year and has set forth the goal of shifting to 100% renewable energy use by 2040.

● Reducing Emissions and Costs – a Win-Win

Under the PPA model, the supplier will be MCKB Energy Service Co., Ltd., (MCKB) a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation Energy Solutions Ltd.(http://www.mc-power.co.jp) (MCES). MCKB will install new megawatt-class solar power systems on the rooftops at each of the three breweries, and Kirin Brewery will purchase and use the generated electrical power. This business model eliminates the capital necessary to install the systems on a wide scale while quickly reducing GHG.

The Kirin Group has collaborated with MCESbefore to advance a variety of initiatives directed at reducing GHG emissions, such as converting from heavy fuel oil to gas. The current project is a new initiative within the existing partnership between the two companies. In addition, this project will be implemented under Japan’s Ministry of the Environment’s Public offering of subsidies for carbon dioxide emission control measures project costs (project to promote price reduction of solar power generation equipment, etc. to achieve storage parity) in Japan.
（http://www.env.go.jp/press/109353.html）

In Japan, solar power is already being used at visitor area at Kirin Brewery and Kirin Beverage Company, Limited. Outside of Japan, Lion Pty Ltd installed and began using a solar power system in 2019(https://www.lionco.com/media-centre/lion-invests-in-new-solar-technology). Through these initiatives as well as the new PPA initiative, Kirin Holdings will contribute to establishing a carbon-free society by increasing the ratio of renewable energy used and further accelerating the introduction of renewable energy at the business locations.

Solar power generation to be implemented under a PPA model at the below three breweries :

● Other Environmental Commitments

In 2017, Kirin Holdings set the lofty goal of reducing the sum of Scope 1 and Scope 2 of the Group by 30% by 2030 compared to 2015 levels and Scope 3 by 30% as well, and in 2017, these goals were approved by the Science-based Targets (SBT)*4 Initiative (SBTI (https://sciencebasedtargets.org) )*5. At the end of last year, Kirin Holdings were the first Japanese food company to upgrade from the "2℃ target" to the "1.5°C target" and obtained approval from SBTi.

In addition, in 2018, Kirin Holdings became the first Japanese food company to endorse Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD (https://www.fsb-tcfd.org)*6) recommendations, and Kirin Holdings is actively engaged in scenario analysis and other information disclosure.
*4: Greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set by companies for five to 15 years in the future, consistent with the levels required by the Paris Agreement (which aims to limit the global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius).
*5: An initiative established in 2015 by the CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and WWF.
For reference
*6：Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. https://www.fsb-tcfd.org.

● Other Environmental Initiatives

Along with conducting far-reaching energy conservation activities, the Kirin Group is promoting initiatives to reduce GHG emissions throughout the value chain, including installing highly-efficient heat pumps, reducing the weight of containers, promoting joint deliveries of products, and switching from traditional energy sources to renewable energies. This includes increasing the use of renewable energies such as solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power and electric power generation using biogas from wastewater treatment processes. Outside of Japan, Lion Pty Ltd, a Kirin Group company acquired Australasia's first large-scale carbon neutral certification in May 2020(https://lionco.com/our-commitments/our-sustainability-approach/our-carbon-neutral-commitment/).

Furthermore, in June of last year, the Kirin Group signed the United Nations Global Compact’s Business ambition for 1.5°C(https://www.unglobalcompact.org/take-action/events/climate-action-summit-2019/business-ambition). This is a declaration of its commitment to revise upward its mid-term GHG reduction targets to achieve net zero GHG emissions in the long term.

● Zero GHG by 2050

In February 2020, the Kirin Group announced the Kirin Group Environmental Vision 2050 aimed at strengthening the resilience of the group and the global community. In the area of climate change, the Kirin Group will aim to achieve net zero GHG emissions throughout the entire value chain by 2050. In addition, the Kirin Group recently joined the RE100 Initiative(https://www.there100.org) in November 2020 and will aim to achieve 100% renewable energy use by 2040. The current initiative is one step forward in achieving this goal, and through further initiatives such as this, the Kirin Group will lead the way toward the establishment of a carbon-free society.

About Kirin Holdings

Kirin Holdings Company, Limited is an international company that operates in the Food & Beverages domain (Food & Beverages businesses), Pharmaceuticals domain (Pharmaceuticals businesses), and Health Science domain (Health Science business), both in Japan and across the globe.
Kirin Holdings can trace its roots to Japan Brewery which was established in 1885. Japan Brewery became Kirin Brewery in 1907. Since then, the company expanded its business with fermentation and biotechnology as its core technologies, and entered the pharmaceutical business in the 1980s, all of which continue to be global growth centers. In 2007, Kirin Holdings was established as a pure holding company and is currently focusing on boosting its Health Science domain.
Under the Kirin Group Vision 2027 (KV 2027), a long-term management plan launched in 2019, the Kirin Group aims to become “A global leader in CSV*8, creating value across our world of Food & Beverages to Pharmaceuticals.” Going forward, the Kirin Group will continue to leverage its strengths to create both social and economic value through its businesses, with the aim of achieving sustainable growth in corporate value.
* Creating Shared Value: combined added value for consumers as well as for society at large.