How IoT and AWS Can Make Britvic Drinks More Sustainable

Annually, the average person consumes more than 100 litres of soft drinks, contributing to a global industry that rakes in approximately US$84.2bn in revenue. 

However, the production, distribution, and packaging of these beverages can significantly harm the environment, especially when single-use plastic bottles are not properly disposed of or recycled.

Britvic, a UK-based beverage company, is known for producing a variety of drinks, including PepsiCo brands, Tango and Aqua Libra. 

Recently, the Carlsberg Group announced it will acquire Britvic, resulting in the formation of a new entity called Carlsberg Britvic. 

IoT harnessed for sustainability in soft drinks

Britvic has partnered with AWS and IoT provider Wireless Logic for its Aqua Libra Flavour Taps that provide soft drinks for reusable containers.

The partnership will provide real-time data through expanded IoT technologies.

Malcolm McDermott, Brand Lead for Aqua Libra at Britvic, says: “The really common sense view is why have more packaging than you need. 

“I think that a lot of this comes from new ways of consumers interacting with drinks. 

“People are demanding more, for instance, out of what they get in the workplace. They are demanding higher quality sources of water when they're out and about. 

“What can you do that takes advantage of the new trends, but also of new technologies in order to be able to deliver more of the drinks that people want when they're out and about in ways that don't just immediately jump to using the traditional packaging methods that you might have done.”

How the Aqua Libra Flavour Tap works

The Aqua Libra Flavour Tap is an innovative digital beverage system that offers Aqua Libra soft drinks without the need for traditional packaging. 

This eco-friendly dispenser serves up a variety of sugar-free and additive-free options, including flavours like Cucumber, Mint & Lime and Raspberry & Peach.

Designed for office spaces, hotels, restaurants, and shops, the station allows users to easily fill their own reusable containers with the drinks. 

Each unit is constructed using recycled plastic parts and comes equipped with six flavour pods. 

Before requiring any replacements, these pods can produce enough beverages to eliminate the use of up to 10,000 single-use plastic bottles or cans, making it a more sustainable choice for refreshment.

Real-time data for sustainability

The flavour taps provide real-time data on a variety of factors such as preferred flavours, times and frequency for drinks.

Malcolm says: “What has been really interesting is what we can do with that data to start to predict usage patterns or make it easier for us to deliver the consumables for our product. 

“We still use cartridges that are the equivalent of 2000 traditional drinks in one cartridge, so there's a massive efficiency saving there.

“Being able to use the data to work out when we need to ship those to site and not having to rely on traditional supply chains allows us to use a variety of different methods like the post which makes us more reliable.

The Flavour Tap’s new IoT integration with Wireless Logic will provide more information that can be used for sustainability efforts.

“It's also a smart cartridge and it's tracked by NFC. What that means is that we can actually start to track that at the end of life as well,” says Jack Drinkwater, Business Development Manager at Wireless Logic.

“If you look at sustainability, there's a huge amount of work that's going on not just in the UK but globally to help drive a more sustainable world. 

“There are more and more technologies coming to market really week by week, month by month that are helping to drive that change. 

“Even things right through to environment sensors and monitoring, noise pollution, light pollution sensors – these types of different applications can really make a difference and impact global sustainability.”

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