A Case Study in Small Brewery Sustainability

Craft Beer in America, and especially in Colorado, is turning its focus to being as sustainable as possible. Not only does a craft brewery have to brew great beer, but being sustainable in that process is now as important as that delicious beer they produce. The brewing process uses a lot of energy, water, and resources, so it’s important for the thousands of craft breweries to think about how they can reduce their impact on the environment.

Luckily, we have a team here at the Goat that can tackle this responsibility. Charlie and Kelsey present the growing need for practical environmental sustainability measures geared toward small brewing operations while reducing a business’s overall environmental impact. They wrote this paper specifically highlighting our efforts at Gilded Goat Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO.

Their efforts are focused on measuring, monitoring, benchmarking, and goal setting for the various ingredients, utilities, and waste products throughout the brewing process. We were able to determine that compared with other breweries in the size category (microbrewery), Gilded Goat uses less water than the average microbrewery, has similar usage to the average in electricity and fuel, and uses more CO2 than the average, based on data from the Brewers Association.

From these findings, several recommendations have been identified for us on ingredients, employee engagement, community involvement, and energy efficiency. Most of the recommendations included in this report are opportunities geared toward efficiency throughout the brewing process and identifying key areas for improvement through employee engagement. These suggestions are focused on short- and long-term implementations that can reduce the overall environmental impact of Gilded Goat and similar small brewing operations.

Click below to read and let us know what you think!