It takes a lot of beer to make beer, as the saying goes—but it also takes a lot of water and energy. It’s not easy to calculate the environmental impact of thousands of breweries around the world. However, it might be possible for each brewery to calculate its own.
A new resource from New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado, is meant to help fellow breweries of all sizes calculate and reduce their carbon footprints. The brewery released its Carbon Neutral Toolkit this week.
New Belgium has long had a vocal dedication to environmental sustainability; to “inspire social and environmental change” is explicitly one of the company’s four core values. In 2003, the brewery first established an internal department devoted to sustainability. That led to installations of solar panels, wastewater treatment, and status as a Certified B Corporation, among other things. More recently, SCS Global Services last year certified New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale as a carbon-neutral beer, making it the first nationally distributed beer to receive that status.