Sierra Nevada Brewing named EPA Green Business of the Year 2010

Sierra Nevada Brewing named EPA Green Business of the Year 2010

Prestigious awards to be presented at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles

(Los Angeles, CA) – Community activists, forward-thinking elected officials, innovative researchers, sustainable businesses, cutting edge green technologies and a young eco-activist are among the honorees to be recognized today at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 12th annual Environmental Awards Ceremony held in downtown Los Angeles, Calif.


The awards, held on the EPA’s 40th anniversary help celebrate “40 Years of Environmentalism.” Since 1970, America’s environmental history has stood witness to both dramatic events and remarkable progress. For 40 years, EPA has carried out a mission to protect the air we breathe, to safeguard the water that flows through our communities and into our homes, to ban unsafe chemicals and pesticides, and to care for the land where we build neighborhoods, schools and businesses. In the last four decades, EPA’s work has benefitted every single American.

Today, new cars are 98 percent cleaner than in 1970 in terms of smog-forming pollutants. Back in 1980, American families and businesses recycled about 10 percent of trash. Today, 33 percent recycle – that’s like cutting green house gas emissions from more than 33 million automobiles.
In the Pacific Southwest, the number of hazardous waste landfills has decreased by 90 percent since 1980. In the same year, there were 19 hazardous waste incinerators in the Pacific Southwest, today there are no hazardous waste incinerators operating in the Region.

“From Arizona to California to Samoa, this year’s winners’ fight to protect our air, water and land in the face of daily environmental challenges,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “These innovative green heroes prove that it is possible to make a difference and improve our environment, regardless of whether they are elected officials, business leaders, or community activists.”

EPA is joined by co-sponsors South Coast Air Quality Management District, San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District, and the Bay Area Quality Management District. Award recipients from California, Arizona, Hawaii and American Samoa are participating in a panel discussion following the awards ceremony to discuss critical environmental issues facing the Pacific Southwest.

“During the past 40 years, EPA has played an important role in helping to clean up Southern California’s smog,” said Barry R. Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “EPA’s efforts along with those by today’s honorees will help ensure continued environmental improvements in the future.”

Each year, U.S. EPA’s Pacific Southwest office encourages citizens in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands to nominate individuals or organizations for 12 Environmental Awards. This program offers a great opportunity to recognize individuals and groups outside of EPA who are working to protect public health and the environment. Awards are granted to scientists, teachers, journalists, citizen activists, young people, organizations, business representatives, public officials, and others committed to protecting public health and preserving our natural surroundings.

Green Business of the Year:

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Chico, CA

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is recognized for its environmental leadership in the brewing industry. Since 1980, the company has consistently implemented sustainability policies and projects that reduced the company’s environmental footprint across all of its operations. The brewery implemented a zero-waste policy — diverting 99.5 percent of its solid waste from the landfill through source reduction, recycling, and composting. Sierra Nevada has made significant investments in renewable power, which now supplies 85 percent of the company’s electricity needs. The company has reduced its water use year after year, and has also implemented an innovative water recycling program. Beyond its own operations, the brewery is working with its suppliers and partners to reduce the impact of their products. Sierra Nevada is the largest buyer of organic hops in the country, and established a “Farm with your Brewer” program to encourage small hops farmers to adopt sustainable practices. From field to bottle, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company strives to maintain a healthy balance between environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic stability.

SABMiller Makes More Beer With Less Water SustainableBusiness.com News

Global brewing company SABMiller is cutting the amount of water used to make beer. So far, it's managed to cut it by only 8%, but they say that's a lot for a water intensive industry in their corporate sustainability report.

SABMiller owns more than 200 brands of beer, including Miller Genuine Draft, Pilsner Urquell, Peroni and Grolsch. The company is also one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the world and has more than 70,000 employees spread across 75 countries.

SABMiller states, "The scarcity and availability of water represent a potentially significant risk to parts of our business, as well as to some of the communities in which we operate."

The company's goal is to reduce water consumption 25% below 2008 levels by 2015. So far, the company has cut 8%, even as its total water consumption increased with higher production levels. Over the last year, it cut it by 3%.

In 2010, they published detailed water footprints of its operations in Peru, Ukraine, Tanzania and South Africa - all countries at risk of significant water stress. A water footprint shows how much water is consumed to produce beer throughout the value chain, from crop cultivation to waste disposal.

The results showed considerable variation - ranging from 61 liters of water per liter of beer produced in Peru to 180 liters per liter in Tanzania - illustrating the impact of local factors on water consumption.

Crop cultivation accounted for over 90% of water consumed in the four countries analyzed. Using this quantitative approach, SABMiller says it is engaging with local stakeholders in each country to develop watershed protection programs and to spread best practices.

SABMiller also is a founding signatory of the UN CEO Water Mandate, an initiative that helps companies to develop, implement and disclose water sustainability policies and practices. And in 2010 the company participated in the inaugural CDP Water Disclosure project, which aims to inform the global marketplace on investment risk and commercial opportunity relating to water risk.

Water risk is one of 10 sustainability priorities established by SABMiller. This year the company launched a new reporting tool that enables users to explore detailed sustainable development data, by country and priority, and learn more about the performance of its local businesses.

Other highlights from the 2011 report include a 3% reduction in fossil fuel emissions en route to a 50% reduction goal by 2020; a 96% recycling rate for production waste; and the introduction of a new environmental impact assessment tool that measures impact from raw material use to final disposal.

The company states that its 10 priorities for sustainable development are:

• Discouraging irresponsible drinking
• Making more beer using less water
• Reducing energy and carbon footprint
• Packaging, reuse and recycling
• Working towards zero waste operations
• Encouraging enterprise development in value chains
• Benefiting communities
• Contributing to the reduction of HIV/Aids
• Respecting human rights
• Transparency and ethics

Green Beer Stuff

Beer is made from barley, hops, yeast, and other ingredients heavily treated with toxic insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers. In agricultural areas, many of the chemicals sprayed on crops filter into the groundwater and build dangerously high concentrations of toxins in community water supplies. This chemically intensive farming devastates ecosystems (killing at least 67 million birds and 14 million fish each year) and can cause serious health problems for humans such as cancer, reproductive disorders, respiratory ailments, and allergies.

Organic Beer

Organic beer is made the same way, but under USDA standards at least 95 percent of its ingredients must be grown without pesticides. Organic farming reduces erosion, pollution, and water shortages by replacing agricultural chemicals with natural alternatives. Not to mention, well-established organic farms often produce higher yields and provide more agricultural jobs per acre than conventional farming. Since 2005, organic beer has had a 40 percent sales increase and is currently tied with organic coffee as the fastest-growing organic drink. Increased organic beer demand means greater funding and support for the organic farmers who restore the environment, empower workers, and protect animal and human health worldwide. It doesn't hurt that chemical-free, organic beer also happens to taste better.

Top Organic Beer Producer

Britain rightfully claims preeminence in the organic beer industry, but the number of organic breweries in the U.S. is increasing rapidly every year. Consumers are now provided with a vast and continually growing selection of brand new beer styles. While St. Peter's Organic English Ale and Samuel Smith Organic Ale are great-tasting imports, buying from local breweries keeps profits in your own community and reduces the negative environmental effects of long-distance transport. With as many organic beer brands as there currently are, you're guaranteed to find at least one that lets you eco-imbibe according to your individual tastes. Take a look at our article Where to Find Organic Beer for suggestions on specific beers you may want to try.

THE MOST SUSTAINABLE AMERICAN BREWERIES (Says "Chasing Green")

Brooklyn Brewing Company: This 100 percent wind-powered facility, located in Brooklyn, New York, produces about 1.6 million gallons of beer each year and saves 335,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

New Belgium Brewing Company: This Fort Collins, Colorado-based brewery is 70 percent wind-powered. The plant has also developed an alternative power source for the remaining 30 percent of its sustainable energy by reclaiming wastewater, cultivating its bacteria, and combusting the methane. In addition, the brewery cleans and re-filters the water during the cooling process of brewing, and then gives the water back to the city for residential use.

Coors Brewing Company: As our Pros and Cons of Aluminum cans article will tell you, Coors often receives attention for being the first to develop recyclable beer cans. But that isn't the only sustainable action behind this Golden, Colorado-based company, which also happens to be one of the largest brewers in the world – they also sell ethanol, the by-product of breweries, to refineries that then resell it to green gas stations, or those that cater to eco-friendly drivers. Coors has successfully reduced ethanol distribution to the surrounding area in a manner completely unparalleled by its competitors.

Stone Brewing Company: Stone Brewery has covered its Escondido, California facility's exterior with 1500 solar panels and has, since installation, cut its energy bills in half and offset an estimated 538,000 pound s of carbon emissions (a number with an estimated equivalent to planting 204 acres of trees). Stone Brewery also uses bio-diesel delivery trucks to distribute its beer and brand products around the west coast.

Odell Brewing Company: Odell has set a goal to actively reduce green gas and does so through waste reduction, recycling, and the utilization of renewable energy sources. The 100 percent wind-powered, Fort Collins, Colorado-based brewery's ceilings are lined with skylights and dramatically reduce CO2 emissions. While the company encourages its employees to bike to work and/or carpool, and uses delivery trucks that run on bio-diesel (which is biodegradable and emits 78 percent less CO2 than standard fuel).

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company: This second largest craft brewery in the nation is nearly 100 percent solar-powered, utilizing a system of solar grids with the capability of producing 1.4 megawatts of AC power. The overall hope of this Chico, California-based brewing company is that the surplus energy created by their system will eventually be made available to neighboring businesses that rely on an overloaded power grid. As a participant and signer of the California Climate Action Registry, Sierra Nevada also works with a consortium of green businesses to track, report, and reduce greenhouse emissions statewide.

Great Lakes Brewing Company: This Cleveland, Ohio-based, environmentally-progressive brewery has instituted a “Zero Waste Initiative” aimed at making use of the by-products generated from the brewing process. The hope of Great Lakes' management is that eventually 100 percent of the brewery's resources will be used in a closed loop, subscribing to the maxim: “Take, Make, Remake.” Additionally, their delivery trucks run on vegetable oil, all their packaging is recyclable, they support sustainable urban renewal projects, and they only use water from the Great Lakes region.

Full Sail Brewing Company: Based in Hood River, Oregon, this second largest craft brewer in the state cuts down on energy use and water consumption by 20 percent simply by compressing its work week into ten-hour shifts. Full Sail also installed energy-efficient lighting and air compressors to reduce their energy use by 400,000 kWh each year. And because Full Sail takes care of its Mt. Hood water by implementing practices that reduce water consumption, they use 3.1 million fewer gallons of water per year.

Eel River Brewing Company: California's first brewery to be certified organic, Eel River's brewing facility in Scotia is powered completely by bio-mass, renewable energy. The power used to brew the beer there is produced from mill leftovers such as wood chips, bark, scrap lumber, and clippings. In addition, its Fortuna-located brewery's pretreatment facility lessens the load off the city's actual water treatment plant.

Alaskan Brewing Company: This Juneau-based brewery is committed to exercising environmental stewardship in every aspect of its business. Its aim is to have a zero-net negative effect upon the environment by reclaiming and reusing “at least as much waste and emissions as [they] produce.” Alaskan Brewing was the first craft brewery in the United States to install and operate a carbon dioxide reclamation system that captures and cleans CO2 and uses it to package the beer, and to purge oxygen from holding tanks. This system prevents approximately 783,000 pounds of global warming-contributing CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. Alaskan also saves 65,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year through its installation and use of a mash filter press.