Company Advocates for Water Conservation
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Business
Beer Industry Stands up for Stringent Water Preservation Policies
When Kim Jordan was exploring options for building an inclusive business, management consultants told her she didn't need to acknowledge the people driving forklifts at New Belgium Brewery, where she's the CEO.
"You can hire those kinds of skills any day," she was told. "It's top management that you need to incentivize."
That advice contradicted the kind of community she and her management team wanted to build at New Belgium, one of a second wave of breweries driving the US craft beer revolution. The brewery went 100% employee-owned in January 2013.
Founded in 1991, New Belgium has flourished into a multimillion-dollar business. Its story is emblematic of the rise of craft brewing in the US, which is often told as a David and Goliath tale, with plucky artisanal brewers - focused on making beer with soul - taking on the bland global beer brands of yore.
Something in the water
It's Jordan's view that craft brewers have a tendency towards iconoclasm, and so it fits that New Belgium is hardly the only brewer taking a path less trodden when it comes to sustainable business practices.
Grossman says that being conscious of limited resources has remained a key part of his business as it has grown from a kit cobbled together from cast-off food-processing equipment in 1980 to the seventh biggest brewery in the US. If you visit the Sierra Nevada website, you can view electricity being produced by its solar panels and fuel cells in real time. On a clear day, they generate more than 100% of the brewery's needs.
He describes the approach as "a philosophical thing that goes to who we are as a company and who I am". If that's the case for the other 2,768 US craft brewers, you should expect more than just a revolution in how beer tastes but also in the whole business of making beer.
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