During her presentation last week at the Craft Brewers Conference, Jenn Orgolini, Director of Sustainability at New Belgium Brewing, discussed a surprise finding in their new study that assessed the lifecycle carbon impact of a six pack of Fat Tire. More than half the greenhouse gas emissions from their flagship beer comes from the refrigeration units at beer retailers.
A new group in San Francisco, going by the name Carrotmob, may have the solution to this carbonated conundrum. Here’s the plan: everyone go get some beer.
Okay, it’s slightly more complicated than that and the organization’s founder makes it look a lot easier than it really is, but he does seem to be on to something. He asked 23 local liquor stores how much money they’d be willing to spend on environmental improvements if he rallied hundreds of customers to converge on the store in a buying spree. The winning bidder, K & D Market, committed to spending 22% of that day’s proceeds on energy efficiency upgrades.
They ended up raising nearly twice as much money as the retailer expected (and more than five times what they earn on a typical day) and the revenue was spent on updating the store’s entire lighting system and replacing all the refrigerator gaskets.
I call that beer activism at its finest. Using the carrot, er, the beer, rather than the stick, to advance sustainability.
The front page of today’s Washington Post contains a somber story about mass closings of rural pubs in Ireland. What could be causing the closure of these venerable community institutions in Ireland of all places, the emerald of world pub culture?
Ireland’s booming economy is providing younger folks with higher paying jobs far away from their rural homes. At the end of the day, after a long commute, more of these folks are opting for drinks at home in front of the television or weekend vacations to the continent rather than popping down to the pub for a slow round with the neighbors.
The article goes on to describe how this is leaving many of the older rural inhabitants stuck lonely and at home when they would rather be celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, funerals and other special occasions with the community at the pub.
What’s at stake when pubs close down? The art of conversation, says one pubgoer. Live, participatory music as well. Another community member (in the video above) says when the village pub closed it was like “a sudden death in the family.” And when it reopened, “everything back to life again.”
Came across this news item on greenlagirl (one of my favorite blogs). This guy built one thousand human statues from trash, notably including “drink cans,” and placed them in a plaza in Brussels.
Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws was formed in 2005 to advocate for beer and wine laws that: 1) benefit consumers; 2) promote competition; 3) protect the environment; and 4) support Maryland’s brewers and wineries.
MBBWL represents all Marylanders — consumers, retailers, producers, distributors, and just regular folks — who share our values.
Specific reforms that we support include allowing consumers to order wine through online retailers like wine.com, and buy beer and wine at grocery stores.
They’ve got my support, that’s for sure. I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, the only place in America to have a county controlled beer and wine distribution system. This “byzantine system,” as the Washington City Paper called it in a recent article, raises prices, reduces availability, makes it difficult for retail outlets like bars and restaurants to access good beer, and has a negative effect on product freshness and therefore quality.
County controlled distribution serves no interests of Montgomery County residents, it just funnels profits to the County that would otherwise go to family-owned distributorships like the ones that distribute all the rest of the beer in this country. Why does the County assume the right to distribute beer and not hot dogs and carpets?
Brewed by the St. Feuillien brewery in Le Roeux, Belgium, this was an end of the night beer out in Springfield, WV (see last post). Although I could only find the Triple, I did serve it in a proper Beglian style chalice complete with the wrapped present-shaped St. Feuillien’s Cuvee du Noel coaster, which would have been the more seasonally appropriate beer choice.
That’s my friend Andy getting ready to enjoy the first sip. Looks like he’s getting ready to burglarize someone’s home, but as you can see from the previous post, there was no burglary in the plan, just straight forward house-destruction.
We also sampled one of Mike’s homebrews, as well as a couple scotches and some Mt. Moonshine - I’ll have to cover appalachian moonshine in some future posts.
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Energy, Global warming, beer video | Tagged: beer, beer activism, enery efficiency | 
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Posted by beeractivist
(no. 6 in the Twelve Beers of Chirstmas series)
