Green Technology | New Belgium Brewing Company

Jeff and his wife, Kim Jordan is the owener of New Belgium Brewing Company at Fort Collins, Colorado. They began commercially brewing beer in their kitchen and basement in 1991. From those humble, 8 ½ barrels-a-week, basement beginnings, the pair has expanded to a new, energy-efficient facility that ships 140,000 barrels of quality beer to 11 states. But their success has not taken them off the track of their commitments. Since 1993, New Belgium has donated $1 for every barrel brewed the prior year to charities within its territories. "In 1999," says Jeff, "we had $104,000 to contribute to organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, Emily Griffith Center, The Hope Center, and other non-profit organizations."

Today New Belgium Brewing has become the third-largest craft brewer in the US, today producing over 600,000 barrels of beer per year. Seeing double-digit growth in sales year on year, New Belgium beers are now available in more than 25 states, and the company has more than 360 employees.

While it’s not unusual for companies of this size to have a green agenda, New Belgium’s focus on sustainability is quite apart from the norm. As well as holding the accolade for being the first brewery to subscribe to wind energy, the company has installed a 200 kilowatt-hour (kWh) photovoltaic solar array that will replace almost 264,000kWh of coal-powered electricity each year – the largest privately owned solar panel system in the region.

And it doesn’t stop here. By processing its waste water, the company produces 14 per cent of its own electricity, a process that saved it in excess of US$60,000 last year alone. It also uses 39 hybrid vehicles in its company fleet, and has company bicycles for its staff. All this adds up to an extraordinary place to work – and this hasn’t gone unnoticed. New Belgium has received numerous awards over the years, and has been included in Wall Street Journal’s ‘Best Small Workplaces’.