Craft Beer Brewers Go Green Part 1: Allagash, Brooklyn & Sierra Nevada
When you think of industries that are good to the environment, which ones do you think of? Well, if you didn’t say “craft brewing,” then you might want to think again. Craft breweries are some of the greenest companies around, many are ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing sustainability and environmental initiatives. Maybe it’s the fact that the beer industry has razor thin profit margins so waste costs too much. Or, maybe it’s just the culture that many brewers and craft beer brewery owners come from that make them more inclined to enact environmentally friendly plans. Perhaps, since most breweries are fairly local enterprises, they don’t want to pollute the very area where they have their most loyal market. Regardless, brewers are a green bunch and we’re not talking envy. Check out how the following breweries do their best to do right by our planet.
Note: This is the first in a series of several articles that will highlight breweries with green practices. Each article will focus on one or two different methods for sustainability, such as recycling or wind power, and then highlight one brewery that has gone above and beyond the call of duty in protecting our world. Enjoy!
In Part 1 of Craft Beer Brewers Go Green, we'll focus on breweries that use wind power, including Allagash Brewing Company and Brooklyn Brewery. Then, you'll get an in-depth look at many of the amazing steps Sierra Nevada has taken to truly be one of the greenest breweries, if not companies, in the United States.
Wind Power
Allagash Brewing Company (Portland, ME)
In addition to producing wonderful and award winning Belgian-style beers, Allagash is also an environmentally concerned group of people. To that end, they purchase 100% wind power for their electrical needs.
Brooklyn Brewery, Inc. (Brooklyn, NY)
Since September 1, 2003, Brooklyn Brewery has been 100% powered by wind-generated electricity from Newwind Energy. This made them the first company in New York City to switch to 100% wind power.
Industry Leader
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (Chico, CA)
California’s Sierra Nevada is possibly the greenest craft brewery - and probably one of the greenest companies - in the country. Their goal is to run on 100% sustainable energy, which they produce themselves for the most part. With one of the largest private solar arrays in the country, they produce 1.4 MW of AC power for the brewery. They’ve also installed 1 MW worth of fuel cells, again one of the largest installations of its kind in the United States. These fuel cells produce electricity to power the brewery as well as excess heat which Sierra Nevada harnesses to produce steam for boiling the beer and other heating needs.
Sierra Nevada has taken care of their power needs, but they’re also strong when it comes to not wasting materials. As their website says:
Reducing consumption and reusing and recycling raw materials is a basic component of the company’s operations…In 2007, Sierra Nevada diverted a total of 33,038 tons of materials-98.2% of the total waste-from the landfill; including 631,681 pounds of cardboard, 685,874 pounds of glass, 39,860 pounds of paper, 110,081 pounds of plastics, and 192,201 pounds of wood and scrap metal.
They also utilize spent vegetable oil from their restaurant to convert into biodiesel. This biodiesel is used in their trucking fleet to further reduce emissions. Finally, the spent grain, yeast, and trub from producing beer is used as feed for beef and dairy cattle. Appropriately, they then use compost from the cow manure to fertilize their 9-acre hop field.
Going one step further on the reuse and recycle subject, Sierra Nevada has set up an extensive system within their brewery to recover and reuse heat in the form of steam from boiling wort. This energy is used to heat water for other steps of the process. They also recover carbon dioxide from the fermentation process, which they use during bottle filling as well as in dispensing draft beer.
Lastly, while they strive to produce 100% of their power needs, they’re not quite there yet. In response, they purchase carbon offsets so that they are not producing any green house gases. For these efforts (and many more which you can read about on their site) Sierra Nevada has won many awards from California for their environmental policies. Most of them, however, are smart business as well. Conserving energy saves costs, which means that they can sell their beer cheaper. Isn’t green awesome?
