Beer giant AB InBev announces new Chief Sustainability Officer

Belgian beer maker AB InBev has announced that Ingrid De Ryck will replace Ezgi Barcenas as Chief Sustainability Officer on March 1.

De Ryck has been at the company for more than 22 years, mostly working in procurement, logistics and supply chain, and was most recently VP of Procurement and Sustainability for Europe. As Chief Sustainability Officer, she will report to Chief Supply Chain Officer Ricardo Moreira and remain based in Leuven, Belgium.

The company, which owns more than 500 beer brands worldwide including Budweiser, Corona and Leffe, said Barcenas will be “taking on a new professional opportunity” after more than three years as CSO, based in New York. 

She joined AB InBev in 2013 as a sustainability manager and worked her way up to Global Sustainability Director and eventually Chief Sustainability Officer. During her tenure, she focused particularly on water stewardship and agricultural development. 

AB InBev, which employs 167,000 people around the world and posted revenues of US$57.8 billion in 2022, has identified sustainability as “key to both risk management and optimising resource allocation”, with CFO Fernando Tennenbaum noting in a recent earnings call: “[Sustainability] allows us to ensure supply security, manage our costs, and protect our licence to operate and grow for the next 100-plus years.”

The company has set 2025 targets to source 100% of its electricity from renewables, cut CO2 emissions by 25% across all scopes and improve water availability in high-stress areas. 

Since 2017, it has improved water efficiency by 14.7% and reduced greenhouse gas emissions intensity by more than 20% across Scope 1, 2 and 3. As of 2022, it sourced 97.1% of its electricity from renewables.