 Wired News has a story about Brooklyn Brewery, whose beer may be colored brown, but it's actually quite green.
The brewery produces 1,658,000 gallons per year, and it is now 100% powered with wind. According to the story, they aren't directly being powered by wind, they pay a premium to their energy provider. I do this at my house, using North Carolina's option called NC Greenpower.
This is pretty great, since the brewery uses 285,000 kilowatt-hours per year. Brooklyn does even more great stuff, though.It's just one of many socially conscious programs that the $12 million beer company runs to make its beverages environmentally friendly.
It also pays farmers in New Jersey to swing by and pick up the "spent grain" -- the remaining husks that are left over after brewing. The farmers then feed the nutritious grains to their livestock, making good use of Brooklyn Brewery's waste. They're not the only brewery taking these steps:New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, has developed a unique method that uses its waste to power its factory.
After producing its libations, New Belgium puts its waste water inside closed pools filled with anaerobic bacteria. The microbes feed on the water, rich in nutrients from the brewing process, and produce methane gas, which is then pumped back to the factory where it becomes electrical and thermal energy.
Right now, New Belgium meets 30 percent of its energy needs -- between 40,000 and 60,000 kwh per month -- through this cogeneration process. The remaining 70 percent comes from wind, which means no fossil fuels are burned making New Belgium's various beers.
The used water, once cleaned by anaerobic microbes, is used in the factory for cooling and cleaning. Then the water is retreated and returned to the municipal system. That's really cool, and we should continue to support this sort of corporate responsibility.
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