Here’s an awkward truth for smaller, independent, locally focused brewers: Pint for pint, the beer made in a big brewery—from the industrial plants churning out light lager to the craft category’s biggest players—has less environmental impact than what’s pouring at the local brewpub.
The larger the brewery, the more efficiently it uses ingredients and power, and there are more opportunities for green technologies and processes within the brewery. It’s one of those economies of scale within the brewing industry that can frustrate small operators. However, as environmental responsibility becomes a more pressing concern with both producers and consumers of craft beer, we are seeing sustainability, conservation, and positive environmental practices become more common even at the smallest breweries.
While high-ticket capital improvements such as solar power arrays, water treatment facilities, and carbon dioxide–recapture systems get press releases as green feathers in the caps of breweries across the country, brewing more sustainably doesn’t have to mean years-long projects with six-figure price tags. There are improvements to be made at almost every step of the process. Even if you’ve got a microbrewery making 100 barrels a year, you can find ways not only to lower the environmental and social impact of your business, but also to save money while doing it.
Here’s an awkward truth for smaller, independent, locally focused brewers: Pint for pint, the beer made in a big brewery—from the industrial plants churning out light lager to the craft category’s biggest players—has less environmental impact than what’s pouring at the local brewpub.
The larger the brewery, the more efficiently it uses ingredients and power, and there are more opportunities for green technologies and processes within the brewery. It’s one of those economies of scale within the brewing industry that can frustrate small operators. However, as environmental responsibility becomes a more pressing concern with both producers and consumers of craft beer, we are seeing sustainability, conservation, and positive environmental practices become more common even at the smallest breweries.
While high-ticket capital improvements such as solar power arrays, water treatment facilities, and carbon dioxide–recapture systems get press releases as green feathers in the caps of breweries across the country, brewing more sustainably doesn’t have to mean years-long projects with six-figure price tags. There are improvements to be made at almost every step of the process. Even if you’ve got a microbrewery making 100 barrels a year, you can find ways not only to lower the environmental and social impact of your business, but also to save money while doing it.
[PAYWALL]
It’s Cultural
There are countless ways to make a brewery more efficient and less wasteful, and each brewery will have its own way of implementing sustainability solutions. More than the gear and processes required to be sustainable, the drive to improve a brewery’s environmental footprint requires a company culture that emphasizes sustainable practices.
Establishing this culture of sustainability often starts at the top, but it can take many years before a brewery can tackle the big projects. It’s important to stay focused on all the little steps that can make a difference along the way.
Environmentally minded brewers often cite recycling as one small step that not only reduces the business’s environmental impact but is also visible to employees and customers. As an everyday act, it’s a reminder of the big picture that gets everyone involved.
This sense of involvement and ownership of the solutions is a powerful motivator. At Maui Brewing in Hawaii, cofounder Garrett Marrero says that transparency in every aspect of the company helps to develop buy-in from employees.
“Educate your team so they understand why you’re doing what you’re doing,” he says. When employees can see the money you’ve saved from solar power or the expense of the latest sustainability improvement, they are more engaged with the efforts and the company.
Marty Compton, vice president of sales and marketing at California’s venerable North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg, also spent 10 years at Oregon’s Ninkasi, another West Coast brewery focused on sustainability and the environment. “Engage everyone in your process,” he says. “Ask them questions and let them speak up. It’s not effective when you impose it; you have to build it from the ground up.”
Leading by example and having champions of sustainability running a brewery are a start. Yet Katie Wallace, director of social and environmental impact at New Belgium in Fort Collins, Colorado, suggests giving an employee the responsibility for one specific sustainability initiative—or for all the brewery’s sustainable practices. She suggests making it a position in the brewery, even if it’s half-time or if the money has to come from the marketing budget.
“Look at the payback and the avoided costs for different sustainability projects,” she says. Have someone track different data points, such as water or power usage, to identify trends or areas to improve. Or assign someone to find and apply for grants for sustainable initiatives. “Put it in someone’s job description and make them accountable.” Finding someone on the team who wants to run with the sustainability ball shouldn’t be difficult, and their passion will help drive the brewery forward.
Matt Gacioch, sustainability ambassador for the Brewers Association, suggests assembling a “green team” of the brewery’s most passionate environmentalists and charging them with thinking about sustainability in the company and keeping the ball moving forward. “Find the champion in the company and give them the responsibility,” he says.
Running a brewery with sustainable practices isn’t just something that attracts consumers—it can be a big draw for talent as well. At North Coast, Compton says the brewery’s B-Corp status and focus on environmental issues make them an attractive employer in their small coastal town.
At Colorado’s Denver Beer Company, cofounder Patrick Crawford says some sustainability projects are “no brainers” because the return-on-investment is so short—such as the solar array that powers the brewery. Others, such as the brewery’s composting program, are harder to take on. “Composting costs us money,’’ he says, “but people come work here because we do all of these things. They’re happy to take out the trash and the recycling and the compost. We don’t have to sell them on it.”
Big or small, these are breweries that prioritize sustainability efforts; the aspiration to be more environmentally responsible is part of the DNA of their businesses. While the actions being taken for sustainability’s sake can be ad hoc and piecemeal, the intention is always intrinsic to the brand’s identity. It’s a core value that informs decisions from ingredient sourcing to packaging to marketing efforts.
Telling the Story
Beyond the mission, the background story, or the brand identity, there’s something that’s an even deeper part of a brewery’s DNA: its physical location. Geography has always been important for breweries, and locality is a defining element of independent American brewing. While every brewery is influenced by where in the world it makes beer, some breweries are nearly defined by it. That connection to a specific piece of the planet can manifest as a strong and intuitive obligation to the environment.
Wherever there is natural beauty—the coasts, the mountains, the rivers—you’re likely to find a brewery committed to environmental sustainability. That also extends to breweries outside the lower 48—consider Maui and Alaskan Brewing. Those two breweries have pursued initiatives such as CO2 recapture and alternative power sources not only because it was environmentally responsible, but also because it was necessary for the sustainability of their businesses.
“You can’t stand for something if you’re not a successful business,” Marrero says. In Maui, CO2 is unusually expensive and the suppliers unreliable, so the technology to capture it from fermentation and reuse it—too expensive for mainland breweries with a steady supply of cheap CO2—became a business necessity. Now, the brewery produces much of the CO2 it needs for production and packaging. Meanwhile, a solar “microgrid” provides 98 percent of the energy it requires. Both have shrunk the brewery’s environmental footprint, even if that wasn’t the main driver of either project.
Many craft breweries are already good at being “local” and telling their story to nearby customers. The same skills work when telling a brewery’s sustainability story. At Jackson, Wyoming’s Roadhouse Brewing—another B-Corp dedicated to sustainability—the brewery tour has become a way to directly communicate the brewery’s environmental ethos to customers. Roadhouse uses a CO2 recapture solution from Earthly Labs. Production manager Jon Courtois says pointing out the system and how it “touches every process in the brewery” is a great way to start a conversation about sustainability at Roadhouse.
“Local is a great way to be relevant to customers,” says Compton at North Coast, “but we can’t be local outside of Fort Bragg.” The 35-year-old brewery distributes to 44 states and 11 countries. His goal is to differentiate the brewery by being sustainable and environmentally conscious and to “invite people to join us on our journey.” The trick, he says, is finding a balance between “beating people over the head” with the message and letting them discover it on their own.
Social-media sites are a typical way to tell these detailed brand stories. It’s less clear how effective they are at converting new drinkers to a brand or selling more beer.
“I don’t think it moves the needle much at all,” says Laurie Porter, cofounder of Smog City Brewery in Torrance, California. She calls Smog City a “purpose-driven business.” Sustainability initiatives include a partnership with 1% for the Planet; the Community Impact Series of special beers, with each participating brewery helping a different local nonprofit; and assorted facility improvements with efficiency in mind. For Porter, marketing the brewery’s ethos is less about selling beer and more about developing the community and bringing awareness to their partners and to environmental issues.
Up in Juneau, Alaskan cofounder Marcy Larson embodies the frontier spirit that’s common in the panhandle town of 30,000 people. Alaskan’s many sustainability efforts—from their mash press to the spent grain–fired steam boiler to one of the country’s first brewery CO2 recaptures—are more about necessity than bragging rights. “Where we are drives what we do,” she says.
Ryan Lang, Alaskan’s digital-marketing specialist, says that while sustainability might not move the needle on sales, the price for not engaging in sustainability practices could be high—if that becomes the story of your brewery. “If it comes out that you’re not doing everything you can, that’ll move the needle for sure,” he says.
Alaskan Brewing’s mash press generates spent grain that requires much less drying than a typical lautering process, and once dried that grain is burned to fuel the brewery.
The New SOPs
Carbon dioxide was cheap and plentiful in the lower 48—until a shortage came in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Water is abundant in many places across the country, but it’s a daily concern at the 1,000-plus breweries in perennially parched California. Environmental concerns are only growing. What appeared to be novel explorations of sustainability efforts a decade or two ago are likely to become the cost of doing business.
More compelling than the threat of skyrocketing materials costs and the challenge of implementing high-dollar sustainable technologies are the changing demographics facing American craft brewers. The young North Americans turning 21 and exploring craft beer today are more engaged and more concerned with the environment than any generation before them. After all, they may be the first generation that can’t just kick the environmental can down the line to their kids or grandkids. The solutions to the climate crisis will have to happen in their lifetimes.
The breweries that can make more beer with fewer resources—while telling their stories of sustainability and responsibility—are well positioned to win the loyalty and beer money of this demographic. If you’re not doing everything you can to decrease the environmental footprint of your brewery, they might well take that loyalty somewhere else.
