The Brewers Association focuses mainly on three major areas under sustainability
–Water and waste water sustainability: Water provides a big hurdle to breweries both from environmental and economic point of view. In US, on an average, for every barrel of beer produced, 7 barrels of water are consumed and around 70% of the incoming water is disposed off as effluent by the brewers. The brewers Association gives suggestions to reduce the water disposed off thus increasing the sustainability of the process and making it more economic.
Sustainability_-_Water_Wastewater
-Solid Waste: Disposing off the waste generated in breweries is becoming expensive, thus reducing the waste generated or recycling waste provides not only a sustainable but also economic way out. There are two major types of wastes generated in a brewery:
During brewing: Such as spent grain, spent yeast, spent trub etc
During packaging: Cardboard, glass, plastic etc.
Sustainability_Manual_Solid_waste
–Energy: Most of the time, the cost of energy is neglected by breweries, however reducing energy consumption does increase sustainability. Majority of the electrical energy in breweries is used for refrigeration, packaging and compressed air while brew house consumes majority of the natural gas or coal. The brewers association gives guidelines to manage energy efficiently and reduce green house gases.