More and more breweries these days are going green. New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO is at the forefront of green brewing, utilizing solar and wind power, treating their own waste water, and donating 1% of revenue to environmental non profits. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, CA is also utilizing solar energy, treating their own water, recycling everything possible, and working on reducing emissions until they are generating 100% of their power. Head north to Hood River, OR and you will find Full Sail Brewing Company working on green initiatives, including a 4 day work week!

Solar arrays on the roof of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

The list of breweries that are going green is increasing all the time. I could sit here and hash out what all different breweries are doing, but The Huffington Post has a nice article on some of their favorite green breweries out there. What I want to talk about briefly instead is the effect some of these larger breweries may be having on smaller breweries. Just over a half mile away from New Belgium lies Odell Brewing Company, which just activated a new solar array (less than one week after New Belgium expanded theirs).

The PV solar array, installed by Wirsol Solar Colorado Inc., is comprised of 384 General Electric crystalline silicon 200 Watt panels on about 11,000 square feet of rooftop. The PV array produces a total of 77 kilowatts, which will account for 39 percent of the brewery’s peak demand. Odell stressed that they packed as many panels onto the roof as would fit.

I can’t say for certain that green breweries are rubbing off on other ones, but the fact that more and more breweries are going green is encouraging and awesome. So next time you may be debating between a few different beers, maybe how breweries behave will be the deciding factor in your choice!