Sustainable Craft Brewing: A look at Beau’s green initiatives April 22, 2018
In the early days of Beau’s a promise was made to the communities that support the brewery that it would act as an environmental steward and leader in sustainable craft brewing. It all started with the unofficial motto: Beer tastes better when you can feel good about drinking it.
“Keeping a mind toward sustainability—in almost every way you can imagine—makes sense,” says Beau’s co-founder and CEO Steve Beauchesne.
Over the years the efforts have been many. To name a few, these include the use of recycled paper for all labels, boxes, and printed promotional materials; sending spent yeast and organic by-products to a bio-digester to help run a local farm; and brewing with 100% organic ingredients—as highlighted in Beau’s previous short documentary film, Organic Craft Brewing.
In 2016 the brewery successfully wrapped up its Greener Futures Project, a members-only barrel-aged beer club that helped fund some of the very sustainability initiatives listed above.
A key piece of the measures taken by Beau’s is its green energy partnership with Bullfrog Power. In 2014, Beau’s became the first brewery in Canada to choose both 100% green natural gas and 100% green electricity for its brewing operations.
It works through a displacement system: “Our model is what’s called a notional model,” says Bullfrog’s vice president of sales and marketing Anthony Santilli. “We don’t deliver the energy to your home or business, but we aggregate demand in the marketplace and then source that renewable energy from our suppliers across Canada. We put that renewable energy onto the energy system—grid, pipeline or fuel pool—on our customers’ behalf.”
Bullfrog draws from renewable energy sources across the country. Its green electricity comes from a blend of wind and low-impact hydro power (also known as “run-of-the-river” hydro) sourced from new Canadian renewable energy facilities.
When Bullfrog launched its green fuel solution, Beau’s signed on to choose green fuel for a portion of its fleet, further reducing its impact. The green fuel is sourced from biodiesel producers that repurpose used cooking oils from restaurants and kitchen facilities. Green fuel is then injected into the Canadian fuel system.
By supporting renewable energy, Beau’s has reduced its environmental footprint by more than 1,700 tonnes of CO2e. That’s the equivalent of taking 350 cars off the road for one year.
Having addressed its own environmental footprint, it was time for Beau’s to take its efforts beyond its own four walls, as suggested in that original promise of taking a leadership role in the brewing industry and the communities where its beer is sold. In 2017, Beau’s and Bullfrog Power teamed up with Just Food, a non-profit working toward just and sustainable food and farming systems in the Ottawa region, to launch a new solar energy project.
In October of that year, a 10kW solar panel array was installed at the Just Food Farm, allowing Just Food to reduce its operating costs and focus its efforts on its goal of promoting sustainable agriculture in Eastern Ontario—another issue close to Beau’s heart.
“Beau’s is a true game changer—being one of the first companies in Canada to directly address their energy-related emissions footprint with all three of Bullfrog’s green energy offerings,” says Santilli. “We were excited to be a part of this unique collaboration, where an innovative local business that champions green energy also helped a local non-profit develop their own new renewable energy generation.”
The Just Food Farm solar project is a tangible example of an investment into the local community, helping an agricultural business and educational hub with actual infrastructure that families can visit and learn about sustainable farming.
To learn more about Beau’s sustainability initiatives, visit beaus.ca/sustainability; check out bullfrogpower.com to learn more about green energy for homes and businesses in Canada.
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