Limited, Bud APAC Sustainability Webcast. Hosting the webcast today from Bud APAC are Mr. Jan Craps, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chair of the Board, Mr. Jan Clysner, Vice President of Sustainability and Procurement, Mr. Yanjun Cheng, YJ, Chief Supply and Logistics Officer, Mr. Ignacio Lares, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Linda Qian, Chief People Officer, and Mr. Craig Katerberg, Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer. Materials for this webcast can be found on Bud APAC's website at www.budweiserapac.com under the Investor tab on the Results and Presentation page. Through the webcast, you may submit your questions in the Q&A box on the webcast screen. Before proceeding, we would like to remind you that some of the information provided during this webcast, including our answers to your questions, may contain statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements.
These expectations are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors beyond our control. Please refer to slide three of this presentation for the full disclaimer. It is now my pleasure to pass the floor to Mr. Jan Craps. Sir, you may begin.
Thank you, Ann. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining Bud APAC Sustainability Webcast. Some of you might have read our 2023 sustainability report, published on the 22nd of March. Today, I want to take this opportunity to walk you through our 2023 sustainability highlights, as well as the strategy and initiatives we have planned for this year. This is the 5th year we are holding the sustainability webcast, and we are excited for the opportunity to discuss our important sustainability topics with you and share some reflections on our journey. I would also like to encourage you all to submit your questions, and we will answer as many as we can today. If not, my colleagues will reach out to you to follow up accordingly. Let me begin with a brief overview of Bud APAC.
We are a Pan-Asian brewing champion and part of the AB InBev group. As the largest beer company in the Asia Pacific, we operate in over 35 countries and territories, and we continue to grow and have a regional footprint of 47 breweries and 51 distribution centers across our principal markets, including China, South Korea, India, and Vietnam. We publicly listed our shares in Hong Kong in 2019, with a stock code of 1876 HK, which commemorates the year the very first Budweiser beer was brewed. Today, we are well-positioned for long-term growth and competitiveness, thanks to our portfolio of more than 50 brands in the region and over 500 beer brands globally. On top of our operational efficiency, our scale, state-of-the-art facilities, powerful go-to-market, and at the core, our people.
In APAC, by the end of 2023, we have approximately 25,000 talented colleagues of 25 nationalities. 41% of them are female, 28.6% female representation among our managers. Recognizing our role as a catalyst for economic growth, job creation, and sustainable development as Asia's largest brewer, our team remains focused on what we do best, brewing high-quality beers, actively engaging with consumers, supporting our partners, and making a positive impact on the communities that we serve. Last year, we delivered double-digit top and bottom line growth in APAC, as premiumization continued in a resilient beer category. A quick recap of our key performance is that we brewed and sold over 92 million hectoliters of beer and beverages. We generated a total revenue of about $6.9 billion and delivered a normalized EBITDA of over $2 billion.
Our dividend per share was $0.0529 for 2023, representing a 40% increase versus the prior year and an 82% payout ratio. We believe a sound sustainability strategy can create significant economic value and bring more positive environmental and social impact for our shareholders, communities, employees, customers, and consumers, and our partners. We will continue to invest and develop our business sustainably to create a future with more cheers. We dream big to create a future with more cheers. That's our overarching purpose, which helps drive us from commitment to action and from declaration to delivery. In our daily lives, our 10 principles shape how we make decisions and motivate us to do better, keeping our enduring passion for beer and the communities where we operate.
Now, let me provide you with an overview of our 2023 sustainability recognitions. Transparency and meaningful disclosure are key to expanding our sustainability efforts to the broader community and enable us to bring the relevant value chain partners together to make actionable plans. We first issued reports when we listed in Hong Kong in 2019, and we tried to improve the readability over the years. In our 2023 sustainability report, we presented the key changes on our matrix to show comparisons and challenges for certain material topics in sustainability. We are aligning with increasingly stringent and comprehensive disclosure requirements and frameworks from both international authorities and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to prepare our disclosure. Our key learning is that using well-recognized ratings and disclosure recommendations can help us review our sustainability terms and metrics systematically and engage with external stakeholders more smoothly.
We disclose over 400 data points with some specific targets, focused on topics that we have been frequently asked by investors, analysts, and media. To provide a holistic picture of our sustainability, management, and performance, we refer to and align with key ratings and frameworks such as MSCI, Sustainalytics, DJSI, the CDP Climate Change and Water Security Questionnaires. We also have been a member of Science Based Targets initiative to set our greenhouse gas reduction targets in line with a 1.5-degree pathway since 2018. We remain AA of MSCI ESG rating and become a CDP Water A List company, along with an upgrade to A- in CDP's climate rating. Now, let me pass the floor to our VP of Sustainability and Procurement, Jan Clysner, to share more on our sustainability efforts.
Thanks, Jan. Looking back on 2023, we continued to make significant steps towards achieving our 2025 sustainability goals, and we did so through leveraging some industry-first innovations and in close collaboration with our partners in the industry. As you already know, our 2025 sustainability goals cover climate action, water stewardship, circular packaging, and sustainable agriculture, which are all four closely linked to our overall business strategy in achieving positive environmental impact and creating value for our communities. A key achievement in climate action last year is the reduction of our carbon emission intensity per hectoliter by almost 24%, 23.8%, to be precise, across our entire value chain. So Scope 1, 2, and 3, compared to our 2017 baseline.
We're also very excited and proud that Bud China already achieved a 25% carbon emission reduction across its value chain, two years ahead of schedule. As Budweiser APAC, we realized a 64.3 emission reduction in our own operation, so Scope 1 and 2, far ahead of our 2025 target of a 35% reduction. Following our Wuhan and Jinzhou breweries, Jiamusi became our third carbon neutral brewery in 2023. We keep working on RE100 and see opportunities in the countries where the regulatory framework allows for it. More than 66% of our contracted electricity in APAC came from renewable sources. 10 breweries in China have achieved RE100, and 21 breweries in APAC installed solar panels on site. For years, we have been constantly looking for and piloting innovative technology and solutions through our partnerships and our 100+ Innovation Lab .
One showcase I would like to bring is the electric boiler in our Ziyang Brewery. It's the first time that a boiler uses hydropower in the beer industry in the country. I'll leave our CFO, Iggy, to elaborate more on this case with some financial details. We often say, "No water, no beer." The consequences of population growth, economic development, and climate change play a significant role in the growing importance of water stress worldwide. In India, 5 of our breweries are situated near 3 watersheds that are identified as high water stress. Our target is an average water consumption of 2 hectoliters per hectoliter across APAC by 2025, including those breweries in high water stress areas. I'm very happy to share that 1 Indian brewery in a high water stress area achieved this target last year.
We've long pursued water use efficiency and are proud to lead the industry with our best-in-class water management practices. If you have a chance to review our publicly available CDP Water Security Survey, you can learn more about our efforts and initiatives on water management. Last year, we lowered our water usage to 2.03 hectoliters of water per hectoliter of beer produced across our APAC breweries, which is a 32% reduction versus our 2017 baseline. Our Nanning brewery in China continues to be leading in water efficiency, with a water usage of 1.09 hectoliter per hectoliter, which makes it the best brewery among all our ABI breweries worldwide on water efficiency.
Of course, we will continue to invest not only in our breweries, but also in water availability and quality improvement for our value chain and the communities under significant water stress. To improve the availability and quality of the water where we operate, we prioritize China and India. We've replenished totally 40 million hectoliters of water in those two countries. Taking reference from the World Resources Institute Aqueduct tool and our internal custom-made water risk tool, we conducted a comprehensive water risk assessment to monitor water issues within our supply chain, including areas where we source our agricultural commodities. We are dedicated to enhancing the circularity of our packaging materials and minimizing the impact on the environment. By embracing circular packaging, we not only reduce our impact on limited global resources, but we also go after long-term financial benefits.
This circular approach is crucial in addressing climate change, since packaging has a significant impact on our overall carbon footprint. We continue to make good progress within circular packaging in 2023. Almost 65% of our total beer volume was in a returnable package or made from majority of recycled content, and more than 55% of our primary packaging was made of recycled content. Through working closely with our suppliers, we reduced over 28,000 tons of weight in 2023, which include bottles, cans, and other packaging materials. We have achieved an average of 80% for our returnable bottle return rate in APAC. In China, although used beverage cans are recycled, they are used into construction and manufacturing materials, which is a downgrade of the materials. To increase the percentage of recycled content in our cans, we created a cooperation with partners across our value chain.
This innovative closed loop model, Can-to-Can, has already been successfully implemented in our Putian, Foshan, and Wuhan breweries in China. In addition, I'm also very proud to share that we launched the lightest beer can in China last year. This 330 ml can, weighing only 9.57 grams, which is 4% lighter than the industry average. The average carbon footprint of a can today is 185 grams, which is 100 grams lower when comparing to 2017. With everything we're doing, we managed to lower the carbon emission of our cans by more than 30%, or reduction of more than 40,000 tons of carbon emissions compared to our 2017 baseline. A diversified and healthy ecosystem is crucial for us. It's vital for environmental health, water quality, agricultural practices, and overall human well-being.
To address this urgent issue, it is important that we champion and lead sustainable agricultural practices to maintain healthy ecosystems and establish a self-sufficient agricultural supply chain. For more than 12 years, we've been working on a domestic barley breeding program with China's Jiangsu Nongken Group, one of our strategic malt suppliers, to develop and support barley growing in China. In 2023, our locally grown barley increased by 50% to 60,000 tons, benefiting 5,000 farmers and covering 8,000 hectares of land. Last year, we also started to use a patented technology on low-carbon regenerative barley farming. The goal of regenerative farming is to enhance soil carbon sequestration, the soil health, and achieve sustainable agriculture. This technology uses and transform food byproducts into biodegradable agricultural materials in such a way that they help to improve the soil quality and facilitate carbon sequestration.
Also, in India, we have an agricultural program. We support more than 2,600 farmers through our Smart Barley program, which has a big focus on soil health. So far, we have implemented the soil health framework to 90% of our Indian farmers.... I'm very proud to say that 100% of the farmers we partnered with in China and India are skilled, connected, and financially empowered. You may also know that hops are one of the major ingredients of beer. Back in 2021, we started to grow Cascade hops indoor at scale. It was the first time that that was done in China.
Last year, we managed to achieve cost savings and streamlined the supply chain, which resulted in a yield of 1,000 kilograms per hectare of Cascade hop, an 80% reduction in water usage, 90% reduction in land requirements, and a 95% reduction in fuel consumption for transportation. Moving forward, we plan to expand this program and will pilot some innovative concepts, such as utilizing soils made from spent grains, as well as conducting flavor experiments. So far, these are my updates on the progress for our 2025 sustainability goals, and as you know, in 2021, we announced our ambition to achieve net zero across our value chain by 2040.
Now, I would like to hand over to YJ, our Chief Supply and Logistics Officer, to give you an introduction on how we transform our supply chain and encourage our value partners to join us on our sustainability journey.
Thanks, Jan. We believe that supply chain efficiency is the foundation of high quality and sustainable growth. Before I share our support for our value chain partner transformation, allow me to talk about our own first. We are dedicated to building state-of-the-art facilities and an extensive distribution center network across the Asia Pacific. In all our production facilities, we implement the Voyager Plant Optimization, VPO, system, encompassing all elements of ISO 9001 and FSSC 22000. We leverage three, our management principles to mobilize our frontline team members to play a crucial role by taking ownership of product quality, energy, and water efficiency, as well as safety in their respective areas, and linking their compensation with respective KPIs. We are innovating in collaboration with both up and downstream value chain partners to deliver the highest quality and service level.
I want to use a few minutes to introduce our 2023 anchor program with suppliers. Now, it is our carbon footprint overview. As you can tell, our Scope 1 and 2 emissions only take less than 6%. Over 94% of our emissions are from Scope 3. To further reduce our Scope 3 emissions, we need to work with our suppliers. As the majority of our carbon emissions come from our value chain, we are using our Supplier Strategic Alliance, SSA, Vendor Strategic Alliance, VSA, and Logistics Supplier Strategic Alliance, LSSA, to actively help our suppliers reduce their emissions, including renewable energy transition programs and carbon emission audit and capability building projects. In 2023, we elevated our capability building program for enhancing suppliers' understanding of carbon-related matters, particularly on carbon emission baseline setting. We always believe accurate data points are the first step to developing action plans.
We launched E-Cloud, the carbon emission data platform, among our suppliers as their submitted Scope 1 and 2 data will be our Scope 3. We conducted six training sessions covering various topics such as GHG Protocol, SBT, RE100, CDP, TCFD, and PAS 2060. These sessions were attended by more than 300 participants. We facilitated carbon footprint mapping for 40 suppliers and 90 sites, resulting in 40% carbon emission mapping across our value chain. Green logistics is another key area for LSSA program and our further decarbonization. We deployed 401 green trucks in our fleet, an increase of around 9% compared to 2022. In 2024, we are expanding the Supplier Scope 3 program to our water management among our suppliers to drive the overall water efficiency in our value chain.
Now, let me stop here and hand over to Ignacio Lares, our Chief Financial Officer, to share with you how we assess climate-related risks and opportunities across the region. Iggy, over to you.
Thank you, YJ. Our sustainability ambition spans our entire value chain, and we work together with many stakeholders in the markets where we operate in order to bring it to life. As governments establish and review their policy frameworks for a sustainable future, such as China's 30/60 decarbonization goal and the denoted focus on high-quality development in promoting new industrialization, we frequently identify shared objectives and opportunities to lead the way with benchmark initiatives. On that note, some of my colleagues mentioned the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD, earlier. In 2023, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of our assets and business operations using the guidelines set forth by TCFD in order to communicate clearly the climate-related risks and opportunities for our business.
We have included our assets in the assessment of both physical and transition risks, as well as aligned our decarbonization targets with a 1.5 degree Celsius emission reduction pathway. With the IFRS Foundation taking over the TCFD's monitoring responsibilities this year, we understand the ISSB standards will further pave the way for global sustainability reporting, and we will, of course, adopt the most current available standard for our future reporting. With our climate risk assessment in hand, we want to highlight our initial analysis on climate impacts and how they affect or how they may affect our business, our actions in response to risks and opportunities arising from a changing climate, and our efforts to reduce climate change overall. To that effect, let me present you with a case study that shows how transition risk has become an opportunity for our operations.
Our Ziyang Brewery in Sichuan, China, became the China beer industry's first to install electric boilers using hydropower in 2023. The electric boilers replaced the natural gas ones to generate steam with a newly constructed power generation and storage system. Leveraging the peak and valley power pricing structure in the market, the system generates heat using off-peak hours electricity to meet the brewery's steam production needs throughout the day. In addition to the cost efficiency benefits of this approach, we strategically took a sustainable project model, Energy as a Service, also known as EaaS, to capture the transition opportunity with additional financial benefits. We have formed a 20-year partnership with a selected service provider, who invested in the infrastructure and equipment for the whole system, with a dedicated building area of around 3,000 square meters within the Ziyang Brewery.
So far, we have used EaaS for our solar panels and power storage facilities in China, and have seen positive economic and environmental impacts, which is encouraging given the size of the opportunity and the many ways in which we can bring it to life at Bud APAC. With that, I will pass the mic to Linda Qian, our Chief People Officer, to introduce how we thrive with our people and our communities to create a more sustainable future together. Over to you, Linda.
Thank you, Iggy, for a high-level update on our climate-related disclosures. As the largest brewery in APAC, we possess a comprehensive understanding of the hurdles faced by various related businesses, especially small and medium-sized. When it comes to accessing professional services, developing essential business skills, and acquiring necessary resources to enhance and sustain their operations, this awareness drives us to engage with entrepreneurs directly. Bud APAC introduced a B2B e-commerce platform, BEES, in 2021, to engage our wholesalers and retailers in China. Inside the BEES app, user can browse the product, place orders and rewards, arrange deliveries, check on marketing promotions, and assess business insights, all in one place. This B2B platform enable high-quality growth of our partners, allowing us to provide more value-added services to the ecosystem and facilitate industry adaptations to the new economic.
For the internal development of our value chain partners, we have conducted training, covered essential skills like project management, finance, and social media marketing. In China, 100 individuals participate in our wholesaler successor and manager program. Over 80% successfully took over their wholesaler business. In South Korea, 200 business owners have been trained for restaurant operation expertise. To explore and develop more solutions for the future, our 100+ I nnovation Lab continue to expand our efforts to engage and empower entrepreneurs and innovators by organizing webinars, industry workshops, investor roundtables, and pre-pitched training sessions. In 2023, we have engaged 117 ventures and signed a contract with 5 startups. This indicates a commitment to scaling up promising programs and initiatives.
As a business, our most valuable asset is our people, and we are committed to supporting every individual to unlock their potential and excel. As Jan introduced at the presentation, we have a workforce about 25,000 colleagues in 2023. We were recognized as a Top Employer in China, India, and South Korea for three consecutive years. This award, a testament to our commitment to support our people to develop and grow themselves and unleash their potential at Bud APAC. Diversity inspire different ideas to make better decisions and achieve better results. This diverse workforce we have, which represent 25 nationalities across the region, enable us to better understand and meet the needs of our customers, consumers, partners, and communities. 41% of our colleagues are also female, and 28.6% of our managers are female.
We have a serious initiative to support our female employees to grow and shine... One unique initiative I want to highlight is that our female brewmaster program, starting from 2021, 24 female employees have successfully obtained the brewmaster certification. One of them founded the 059 Coastline Craft Beer brand by using traditional brewing techniques and locally sourced ingredients from the Fujian Province to produce distinctive fruit-flavored craft beers. It currently stands as one of the best-selling brands in Fujian local craft beer market. We work with independent party to conduct a comprehensive pay equity review annually. In 2023, there was no significant differences in base pay between women and men across the APAC.
We also have a range of talent programs in place to support our people from across the region to become the backbone of our business. Within our current team, 85% of our APAC management committee members are promoted from the region, Asian markets, and 91% of the leadership and level two positions are also from the region talent program. We are investing in people both within our company and within our partners through our APAC University, where we aim building future capability. In 2023, we provide a range of 85 hours of training per employee in APAC. The safety of our colleagues is very important to us. We follow high standards for protecting occupational health and safety, and work towards zero injuries in our operations by integrating safety in production and logistics operations.
In 2023, we achieved a 95% reduction in total lost time injuries for our employees and the contractors. Next, I will discuss how we develop the resilient communities. First, in this area, at Bud APAC, we believe that drinking beer should be a positive experience. We work with multiple stakeholders to achieve our smart drinking goals, and since 2008, we have built a range of programs tailored to different local contexts. We aim to influence both social norms and individual behaviors to reduce the harmful use of alcohol across our markets, and we do so through dedicated social marketing campaigns and other programs. In addition to that, we continue to leverage our mega brands and mega platform to further engage our consumers, to advocate our smart drinking and moderation.
We will launch our party summer campaign, which aligns with the national introduction of Bud Zero, starting with our partnership with Olympic Qualifier Series in China in the next couple of days. This summer, we will also launch the Cass Zero Olympic edition in on-premise channels and leverage our partnership with the Olympics in South Korea, aiming to improve alcohol literacy, including advice on how to avoid harmful consumption. Our use of the guidelines labels in the APAC market reached 100% by the end of 2021. We are committed to contributing to community building wherever our business operates. Since 2019, Bud China initiated the Corona Extra Lime Project to support farmers in Hunan Province to cultivate high quality limes, which not only improve farmers' livelihood, but also enhance the consumer's Corona drinking experience.
In 2023, Bud China further developed the project to create a social enterprise business model to accelerate and expand impact by establishing the Extra Lime Company with the provision of the startup capital, project investment and operational guidelines. This is a model involving different parties and incorporate with various components. More than just securing the lime supply for Corona, this primary initiative can further promote development of the lime industry and help improve the income for farmers in a sustainable way. In facing natural disasters, we aim to be one of the first to provide essential aid, such as clean drinking water. To that end, we have donated over 2.5 million cans of emergency drinking water to communities in need in China, India, and South Korea since 2015.
Also, in 2023, our employees spent 41,000 hours volunteering in various events. Now, let me pass the next couple of slides to Craig Katerberg, our Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer, to share more about our strong governance ethos.
Thanks, Linda. A sound corporate governance structure is a cornerstone of our company's success in sustainability and beyond. Committed, experienced, and diverse, our board of directors sets our strategy and monitors progress and developments as we move along our sustainability journey. The integration of sustainability at the highest level of management at Bud APAC enables strategic oversight of environmental and social issues for long-term value creation. In Q1, 2023, we evolved our audit committee to the Audit and Risk Committee, a leading measure for CP- for the CPG industry. We believe that increased focus on risk management will help us deliver more sustainable growth and support our strategy to lead and grow the category and optimize our business. Sustainability issues, including climate-related topics, are considered in the risk management process by the Audit and Risk Committee.
Our Audit and Risk Committee chair is an independent, non-executive director with extensive experience in financial and corporate risk management, who helps drive the board agenda for risk management and internal controls. To support the Audit and Risk Committee's risk management efforts, a management-level Risk Committee was also introduced in Q1, 2023. The Risk Committee adopts a cross-functional approach to capture multiple views and expertise across key functions within Bud APAC. The Risk Committee is co-chaired by Ignacio Lares, our CFO, and by myself, the Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer, and it's comprised of various functional heads. The Risk Committee members meet as a group on a quarterly basis to synthesize and assess risks, as well as to make and implement risk-related recommendations.
As appropriate, the co-chairs will make recommendations to the CEO and Co-Chair of the Board and the Audit and Risk Committee on the risk, appetite, profile, and tolerance of Bud APAC. We demonstrate our unwavering commitment to ethics and compliance through our actions. We developed region-specific programs tailored to diverse local contexts. We prioritize the well-being of individuals and uphold the reputation of our company and our brands through consistent communication and a clear, responsible marketing and communications code, what we call the RMCC. The RMCC sets the standards for our marketing and commercial communication to ensure that our marketing, communication, and information is only for individuals above the legal drinking age, and that it's carried out in a socially responsible manner. Our sales, marketing, legal, and corporate affairs colleagues, contractors, and agencies are trained annually in matters related to the RMCC.
Also, we adhere to all applicable laws and regulations without taking shortcuts, diligently identify and assess risks associated with our operations, and employ suitable technology to implement control measures that minimize risk. Under the direction of our CEO and Co-Chair of the board of directors, we've established an Ethics and Compliance Committee at the management level. The committee is responsible for monitoring Bud APAC's compliance with applicable laws and regulations to ensure that all business activities are ethically and legally compliant. To ensure our values are upheld throughout the organization, we provide regular trainings to all employees and value chain partners on our Code of Business Conduct, including relevant policies and procedures. It's imperative that they fully comprehend our expectations regarding business ethics and transparency.
Furthermore, we strive for excellence in corporate governance with 100% of our board and 100% of our management team completing the Code of Business Conduct and anti-corruption trainings in 2023. Colleagues across all our markets have participated in our annual training. Our policies and procedures guide business decisions to make them in a professional, fair, and honest manner. You can find our Whistleblowing Policy and Privacy Policy, Anti-Bribery Policy, and Responsible Marketing and Communications Code among many policies on our website. This concludes from us on sustainability today, and I hope that we've given you a better understanding of our ongoing sustainability journey. Thank you for the time today. We're now ready to answer any questions that you may have. Ann, over to you.
Thank you, Craig. The floor is now open for questions. Please enter your question in the Q&A box on the webcast screen. If you know who you would like to address, please state their name.
Thank you, Ann. So let me maybe start by reading the first question. First question is: congratulations on the achievement of Bud China's value chain emission reduction ahead of schedule. Do you think you can achieve the target in other APAC countries such as India? So let me maybe pass this question to, Jan Clysner.
Okay, happy to take this one, Jan. Thank you. And as you can tell from the presentation, our Scope 3 is more than 94% of our total carbon footprint in 2023, and so it's very important to reduce our value chain, upstream and downstream suppliers' carbon emissions. As my colleague, YJ, introduced in the presentation, we are actively working with our suppliers on carbon reduction. The first step of this journey is to measure and track, so that we can get accurate data points and make action plans with our suppliers. We do that through supplier engagement, monitoring, reporting, collaboration, and innovation. We've already facilitated the carbon footprint mapping for 40 of our suppliers, representing 90 of their sites, which covers 40% of our value chain.
We have a milestone in China. We reached a milestone in China with those initiatives, and now we're working on the best practice sharing across APAC. For example, we work with local teams to gain insights to develop tailor-made, low-carbon transition plans in each country to realize our 2025 sustainability goals. All right. Thank you, Jan. Let me read out the next question that came in. Impressed with your CDP water A-list, very rare for APAC. What are the key competitive advantages you have over your peers as a result of your water management? So this sounds like a question for YJ. YJ, can you take this one?
Thank you. We are very excited to be the CDP Water A-list company. As introduced in the presentation, our water efficiency has been improved substantially every year and getting close to our 2025 sustainability goals in water stewardship. In our daily operation, we apply, reduce, reuse, and rethink principles to improve water efficiency in our breweries. In addition to our constantly enhancing brewery water management, we started a water footprint due diligence and supplier water management program to improve our value chain water efficiency. As our CFO introduced, we did a comprehensive climate-related risk assessment among our assets in APAC in 2023, especially for the physical risks with potential water impacts, such as floods and droughts and the extreme weathers for short term, midterm, and long term. So we have been working on solutions to build a climate-resilient supply chain. I hope this could answer your question.
All right. Thank you, YJ. So let me take the next question. Could you shed more light on your 2023 TCFD risk assessments? Could you provide more examples of transition opportunities in addition to the EaaS case? So that's a question for Iggy, I would say.
Sure. Thank you, Jan, and thanks for the question. Yeah, I think the first example that comes to mind, in addition, of course, the Ziyang brewery, one that we shared earlier. You know, we already have three carbon-neutral breweries, and here we've developed, obviously, a series of innovations which we're expanding to other breweries as well. So, for example, we installed new lightweight solar panels, which are 60%-70% lighter and also more flexible. And we've put these on the fermentation tanks, actually, in our Wuhan and Nantong breweries. So these are examples of initiatives that, you know, limit climate impact and often translate into scalable and economically accretive solutions.
Another example I can share, you know, we have adopted an innovative closed loop model, actually, to recycle retired EV batteries, and we use these to store green power from renewable sources in our Foshan brewery. So we partnered here, of course, with another startup that has expertise in this space. We identify them through our 100+ innovation lab. And then the stored electricity is used actually for producing beer in the brewery itself. We also use it to charge EV heavy truck batteries during on peak hours, when utility fees tend to be higher, right? So we get an additional benefit there in line with our comments before. And then maybe more generally at the product level, you know, consumers nowadays have more eco-awareness than ever before, and this can factor into their pursuit, of course, of environmentally friendly products.
This applies particularly here in APAC. So this presents an opportunity for us to get closer, you know, to our consumers by further communicating the many naturally on-brand sustainability initiatives we're already implementing and which are good for business in their own right. So thank you so much for the question.
Thank you, Iggy. So let me take one more question here. We are very happy to see that APAC is contributing to community building. Could you please provide more details of what it means in APAC? So that's probably a question for Linda.
Okay, Jan, I will take the question. Absolutely. I think for us, for Bud APAC, we thrive when our communities thrive. We invest in our communities through jobs, through high quality technology investments, and also through the economic development. In fact, we know through research conducted by Oxford Economics, that beer supports one out of every 110 jobs globally. That number is very close to one out of every 65 jobs in developing economies. As one example, in China, we mentioned that the Corona Lime Project, that contributes directly to rural revitalization for farmers in Sichuan province already. The income of farmers increase with the high quality limes that they grow.
We also see the similar growth of the jobs and the communities in Korea, in India, and in Vietnam, where we address the needs that communities identified. Training on restaurant operations to Korean small business owners, water stewardship programs in India and Vietnam, and emergency drinking water programs for people during natural disasters are all great examples of a way that we invest in our communities. Jan, I hope we answer your question.
Thank you, Linda.
Thank you, Jan. This concludes our Q&A session today. I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jan Craps for the closing remarks.
Thank you, Ann, and thank you for. Thank you, all of you, for your questions. We designed our sustainability strategy to enable our commercial vision and fulfill our purpose of creating a future with more cheers. We are proud to have achieved some significant milestones last year with our team, our value chain partners, and our communities. We remain committed to bringing positive impacts in this region. As I mentioned earlier, we appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation with you. We look forward to future occasions where we can share more on our sustainability journey. Thank you very much, and see you next time.
Thank you, Jan. This concludes today's webcast. Please disconnect now. Thank you.