New Belgium
NRRT 320
February 23, 2013
Assignment # 3: New Belgium Brewery Tour New Belgium Brewing Company was founded on a pledge of environmental stewardship when Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan put their dreams of brewing beloved beer into forward motion and now, the company is iconic within the US beer brewing industry for its commitment to sustainability practices, supporting the local community and most importantly brewing good beer. The innovative sustainable techniques that they have applied throughout their business along with the integration of their core values have allowed the company to minimize the impacts that it has on the environment. Through the various practices discussed at the brewery tour and those outlined on the New Belgium Brewing Company webpage, it is clear that they have addressed the economic, socio-cultural, ecological and institutional dimensions of sustainable development. New Belgium is constantly striving to improve and employ new techniques to reduce the consumption of natural resources in their processes and increase their energy efficiency and recycling. We see early examples of this in 1998 with a unanimous decision by employees to subscribe 100% of their electricity to City of Fort Collins wind power program and to date, it is the brewery with the largest wind consumption in the country (New Belgium’s steps to being green, ND). This vote was in response to an audit that revealed that brewery’s largest carbon dioxide emiisions were coming from the coal power plant from which it got its energy-the effects of this transition to wind energy saved approximately 15.2 million pounds of coal from being burned and reduced the emissions by 29.4 million pounds from the dates ranging November 1999 to march 2005(New Belgium’s steps to being green, ND). Although New Belgium inevitably had to pay a voluntary premium over coal prices, the company and its employees placed more value on environmental stewardship than that of a larger paycheck. The
February 23, 2013
Assignment # 3: New Belgium Brewery Tour New Belgium Brewing Company was founded on a pledge of environmental stewardship when Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan put their dreams of brewing beloved beer into forward motion and now, the company is iconic within the US beer brewing industry for its commitment to sustainability practices, supporting the local community and most importantly brewing good beer. The innovative sustainable techniques that they have applied throughout their business along with the integration of their core values have allowed the company to minimize the impacts that it has on the environment. Through the various practices discussed at the brewery tour and those outlined on the New Belgium Brewing Company webpage, it is clear that they have addressed the economic, socio-cultural, ecological and institutional dimensions of sustainable development. New Belgium is constantly striving to improve and employ new techniques to reduce the consumption of natural resources in their processes and increase their energy efficiency and recycling. We see early examples of this in 1998 with a unanimous decision by employees to subscribe 100% of their electricity to City of Fort Collins wind power program and to date, it is the brewery with the largest wind consumption in the country (New Belgium’s steps to being green, ND). This vote was in response to an audit that revealed that brewery’s largest carbon dioxide emiisions were coming from the coal power plant from which it got its energy-the effects of this transition to wind energy saved approximately 15.2 million pounds of coal from being burned and reduced the emissions by 29.4 million pounds from the dates ranging November 1999 to march 2005(New Belgium’s steps to being green, ND). Although New Belgium inevitably had to pay a voluntary premium over coal prices, the company and its employees placed more value on environmental stewardship than that of a larger paycheck. The