For information only - not an official document
UNIS/OUS/209
20 September 2013
ST.PETERSBURG/COPENHAGEN/VIENNA,20 September, 2013 (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) - Ida Auken, Denmark's Minister of the Environment, and Sergey Korotkov, Director of the UNIDO office in Russia, today visited the Baltika Breweries headquarters in St Petersburg to sign the three-sided Declaration of Intent to support resource-efficient and cleaner production, and sustainable natural resource management.
The Declaration of Intent, signed by the Danish Minister, the President of Baltika Breweries, and the Director of UNIDO's Investment and Technology Promotion Officein the Russian Federation, supports the partnership between the Carlsberg Group/Baltika and UNIDO, which was announced last year. The Carlsberg Group, which is Baltika Breweries in Russia, has committed to invest up to one billion roubles (USD 31m) in environmental projects in Russia, including water and energy efficiency projects, and projects addressing land degradation. Currently the parties have reached agreements on the fields of cooperation. The Global Environment Facility Fund (GEF) has approved five fields of cooperation, where projects are going to be implemented within the framework of 'Let's Save Resources', the joint programme of UNIDO and Carlsberg Group, represented in Russia by Baltika Breweries. These are water resources preservation, land resources preservation, energy efficiency, social responsibility and scientific research.
During the signing ceremony, the President of Baltika Breweries, Isaac Sheps, announced that Baltika's first investment as part of this partnership will be a 300m rouble investment in the construction of state-of-the-art waste water treatment facilities connected to Baltika's second largest brewery in Tula. There are ongoing commissioning tests and Sheps said that Baltika considers this project as a first contribution to the cooperation with UNIDO in the direction of reducing environmental impacts.
Ida Auken, Minister of the Environment in Denmark , said: "I expect our new cooperation to yield some fruitful environmental results and that both Russian and Danish companies will benefit from these agreements. Working together internationally on solving common environmental challenges is the way forward and I hope that this is only the first step towards further collaboration."
UNIDO's Sergey Korotkovsaid:"Today's signing is confirmation of our agreements and of our determination to move our cooperation to the active implementation stage. Starting on 23 September, an international expert team invited by UNIDO will be visiting Baltika breweries to inspect a number of production sites and adjacent areas, including nearby residential communities, in order to establish the content of the projects to be jointly implemented by UNIDO and Baltika Breweries."
Senior Vice-president of Carlsberg Group for Eastern Europe, President of Baltika Breweries, Isaac Sheps, said: "As a responsible producer, we take our social and environmental responsibility very seriously. Our practice, approaches and business principles confirm our commitment to bring significant positive results for the environment. We are confident that our cooperation with UNIDO will become a positive example of responsible business operations in Russia, and I am pleased that the Danish government has expressed its support and offered its expertise to this partnership."
Sheps continued, "Baltika is a part of the Carlsberg Group, the most efficient global brewing company in terms of water and energy consumption, as well as in reducing CO2 emissions. Therefore, the company pays a lot of attention to re-using glass bottles. Every year, Baltika collects millions of used bottles, which otherwise would end up in the dumpsites or re-melting facilities, thereby cutting the expenses of citizens for domestic waste removal and reducing emissions of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere."
The Baltika Breweries President apprised the Danish Minister of the environmental projects which are already being implemented by the company, for example, the environmental initiative, "Make the difference for Your City", which consists of pilot projects to find the best system of returnable glass bottle collection. Currently, the following cities participate in the initiative: Rostov-on-Don, Nizhniy Tagil, Yekaterinburg, Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, St Petersburg, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk and Moscow. The company plans to inform all interested parties of the initiative results, so that the experience could be used in the future for forming the government system of managing production and consumption wastes.
On the same day, 20 September, Ida Auken had a chance to inaugurate the project, Make the difference for Your City, in the new residential complex, Severnaya Dolina, which is situated very close to the Baltika-St Petersburg Brewery, where containers for separate collection of solid domestic waste were installed. This gives the local residents a chance to show their environmental responsibility and modern attitude to domestic waste, since most garbage can be recycled and reused. The Minister of the Environment of Denmark launched the project, Make the difference for Your City, in Severnaya Dolina, by putting some returnable glass bottles into new containers.
Auken said:"In Denmark we have a long tradition of reusing glass bottles. They are reused up to 37 times, and this saves a multitude of valuable resources."
Michael Talybin, General Director of GS - SPb Operation LLC, head of the Severnaya Dolina residential complex said: "We clearly understandglobalization andthe pressing need tosolve problemsof solid municipal waste.Volumes ofwasteare growing exponentially , andif we do notsolve this problemtoday,then there is a strong possibility ofenvironmental collapse tomorrow.Therefore,we were exited torespond to Baltika's offerto participatein the environmental initiative, Make the difference for Your City.We believe that it isa very useful andimportant initiative, asthere will be formednot onlyenvironmental friendliness , but also a more thoughtful attitude tothe placewherewe live and work, and it willincrease thesocial responsibilitybothof the tenantsandtheemployeesand as a result it will affect positivelyall areas.Currently,we arrangeseparate collection ofnot onlythe returnableglass bottlesandbroken glass , but alsoplastic andpaper,and together withour partner-arecyclablescollection operator - will provide processing of the collected materials, disposal , recycling orreuse."
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For more information, please contact:
Mikhail
Evstafyev
UNIDO Advocacy and External Relations Group Coordinator
Telephone: (+43-1) -26026-5021
Mobile: (+43-699) -1459-7329
Email: M. Evstafyev[at]unido.org
For Baltika contact:
Svetlana
Lekomtseva
Public relations department, Baltika Breweries OJSC
Telephone: (+ 7) 812 326 66 37
Email: Svetlana.Lekomtseva[at]spb.baltika.ru
