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Trending: Coors, City of London Put Waste to Work with New Recycling Schemes

Include USA
New programs, initiatives and innovations that drive forward the transition to a circular company seem to be popping up almost daily. The latest to pick up the banner for the circular cause? Coors Light and the City of London Corporation.   Coors Light, a MillerCoors brand, is shining light on its sustainability achievements and goals with a new twist on its ongoing “Climb On” campaign and the roll out of “Every One Can,” a summer promotional campaign, which includes the conversion of its billboards into beer coolers and its kegs into barbeque grills, as well as a large-scale push to get drinkers to recycle beer cans.   According to senior marketing director, Elina Vives, Coors has long pursued sustainability goals at the corporate level, but “just haven’t talked about it.” By highlighting its environmental credentials, the brand hopes to win over consumers that, according to consumer research, favor environmentally friendly brands. Sixty-six percent of consumers say they are willing to pay more for sustainable brands, up from 55% in 2014 and 50% in 2013, according to the latest Nielsen Global Corporate Sustainability report published in late 2015. Packaged goods giant Unilever recently did its own study and found that there is an untapped opportunity of around $1 trillion in sales globally for "sustainable goods."   Coors Light marketers tested their sustainability ad and promotional campaign concepts with consumers before moving forward. “They saw it as positive news for the brand,” Vives added. “They saw it as a fresh approach, especially in the American light lager segment.”   Several months ago, the brand began storing the vinyl material used to make its advertising billboards, rather than sending it to landfills. With the help of TerraCycle, Coors is now using the material to make cooler bags for beer, which they plan to give away to consumers in states where that is legal. Each bag bears a tag that reads, “I used to be a billboard.”   The brewer is also transforming damaged beer kegs into barbecue grills that will be used for in-store marketing displays. The agency behind the promotional campaign is Leo Burnett’s shopper marketing agency, Arc, as well as the brewer’s PR agency Olsen. Coors Light plants to roll out the “Every One Can” program with TV ads this summer.   In January 2015, MillerCoors announced the completion of a 3.2 megawatt capacity solar panel installation at its brewery in Irwindale, Calif. The following year, the company reported that all of its major breweries had reached landfill-free status, meaning that no glass, paperboard, plastics or metal waste are sent to landfills. Any remaining non-reusable or recyclable brewery waste is sent to a waste-to-energy facility.