Working in an industry that has a lot of raw materials, uses a lot of natural resources, and regularly relies on recyclable materials, brewers have been a group to embrace sustainability practices and regularly find new ways to incorporate conservation into all aspects of daily business.
There are large craft breweries that have led by example, as has Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. at their breweries in both California and North Carolina. With things such as renewable energy–sourced brewing and an industrial-sized composter, the brewery in Mills River, North Carolina, was certified Platinum by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)—the first production brewery in the country to receive that designation.
“We’ve tried to be good stewards of the environment since our earliest days as brewers, and building a second brewery gave us the chance to start with sustainability in mind,” Sierra Nevada Brewing Founder Ken Grossman said at the time. “Every day, we look at all that we do, and we try to find something to improve—no matter how small. Little by little, the things add up to something that we can be very proud of.”