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According to a 2012 study by Gallup, the majority of adult drinkers in the United States prefer beer over wine and liquor. Today the beer industry represents a more than $496,614.3 million market and the equivalent of over 400 billion bottles of beer are produced annually. As such, the beer industry is a major player in the world, not just economically, but also environmentally. In order to better understand the ways that the beer industry impacts the environment, it is important to fully understand the different steps that go into producing beer. These steps come together to form a full life cycle assessment of beer production.

Breakdown of life cycle of beer
The phases of beer production can be broken down into three major stages: upstream production, production and brewhouse operations, and use. Upstream production includes all of the different steps necessary to create and bring together the raw materials used to make beer. Production and brewhouse operations includes all of the steps of bringing together these raw materials to create the final beer product. Lastly use includes all of the steps necessary to get the final product from the brewery to a consumer and then the steps the beer goes through after it reaches the consumer and until it is completely disposed of.



Upstream production

The following are the different elements of upstream production: Production and brewhouse operations
 * extraction of natural gas resources
 * farming
 * chemical production--specifically the chemicals used as pesticides and fertilizers, which create the potential for harmful runoff
 * malting--Malting is the process where barley grain is made ready for brewing. In order to do this, barley must be roasted.  The varying levels of roast lead to different flavor profiles for the beers.
 * yeast production
 * packaging manufacture
 * delivery to brewery
 * natural gas
 * electricity
 * water




 * grain crushing
 * mash-- converts the starches released during the malting stage into sugars that can be fermented.
 * boil
 * chill/filter
 * ferment
 * package
 * storage
 * cleaning
 * wastewater--estimated that approximately 3 to 10 liters of waste effluent is generated per liter of beer produced in breweries

Use Phase
 * transport
 * storage--the ideal temperature for beer storage is between 36º to 38º F. However, if this is not available, beer must be kept at a temperature below 70º F to maintain freshness
 * dispensing--the ideal temperature range for draught coolers is 36º to 38º F. To get the beer from the keg to a the glass, there is a system that ensures the proper pressure and temperature for the beer.  This system ensures that the pressure is maintained using blends of CO2 and N2, and ensures that the temperature of lines carrying beer from the kegs to the bar are at a temperature of about 29º F
 * waste beer
 * packaging disposal
 * packaging reuse
 * brewhouse and human wastewater
 * spent grains

Recycling Initiatives:
With over 400 billion bottles of beer being produced annually, the beer industry generates waste at several stages of the life cycle. From the raw materials to packaging materials, beer manufacturers have taken steps to recycle these materials in order to reuse them and create less waste.

Packaging
 * The materials used for packaging beer for the consumer are typically aluminum cans or glass bottles. In addition, paper packaging is used for the packaging of the bottles and cans to sell them in sets i.e. a 6 pack.  Anheuser Busch implemented its recycling program in 1978, leading to over 30 years of recycling efforts.  Today, 99% of Anheuser Busch’s solid waste generated in the brewing process is recycled.   Miller Coors, a large competitor, has created an incentivized recycling program Coors Recycles to motivate customers to recycle their beer cans for cost saving benefits.   These figures show how deeply ingrained the recycling process is into beer manufacturing.  In the debate between aluminum or glass bottles, an average aluminum can of beer contains 40% recycled aluminum while an average glass bottle of beer contains 20-30%.   However, this number for glass is growing as another source states recycled glass now accounts for over 30% of glass used in beer bottles.   In addition, aluminum is 100% recyclable, giving it an edge over glass bottles as not all glass is able to be used after the recycling process.   The packaging containing the beer glasses or bottles also poses a recycling issue.  The beer industry has taken note of this stage of packaging and uses packaging containing up to 42% recycled paper in the cartons.

Water Recycling
 * Water is the main ingredient crucial to the beer manufacturing process. As a result, the beer industry has implemented technologies to lower the total water used.  In addition, there are several technologies that can utilized the used water.  Waste steam and condensation are captured during the brewing process then reused to preheat water for another cycle.   Frequently, the brewing companies treat the water onsite to use again.  The water is treated through aerobic and anaerobic methods.  Aerobic treatments lead to solid waste that can be used as fertilizer.   Bio-Energy Recovery Systems (BERS) anaerobically treat water to create ethanol that can power brewery processes or can be sold to combine with gasoline.   Many breweries utilize BERS technologies on their wastewater.

Beer Ingredient Recycling
 * Grain and yeast are two main ingredients in beer that can be reused. Spent grain is predominantly used in agriculture as feed for chicken, pigs, and sheep as well as enriching the soil for crop planting.  In fact, spent grain can even be replanted in the soil to create new grain.  Spent grain can also be used by bakeries for baked goods.   The relationship between a brewery and its surrounding community can be sustainable as the spent grain provides ingredients to help feed the local animals and people.

Recycling Facilities
 * Anheuser Busch operates its own recycling facility in Hayward, California, as well as supporting local community recycling programs.  Miller Coors partners with a facility that produces over a million tons of ethanol a year that comes from their brewing process.

National Recycling Project
 * A national recycling project sponsored by the Can Manufactures Institute has partnered with over 38 communities in order to encourage recycling at home through education campaigns. Within these towns, a 22% average recycling increase in volume was seen.   Beer manufacturers are tackling the recycling issue both internally within their business and on the consumer side.

Case studies:
A way to better understand how companies in the beer industry are incorporating sustainability into the life cycles of their individual products is through an analysis of their individual sustainability projects. The following details information from three breweries' sustainability and corporate responsibility reports:

Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch is the largest brewer in the United States, holding a 46.4 percent share of U.S. beer sales to retailers. The company has recognized the importance of maintaining its public image by acting as a leader in the move toward more sustainable practices. As such, it has established several initiatives to improve the sustainability of its practices. As a signatory to the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate and a member of its steering committee, AB InBev has integrated the Mandate's six core elements in its approach to water management: Direct Operations, Supply Chain and Watershed Management, Collective Action, Public Policy, Community Engagement and Transparency. AB InBev has also released a list of its environmental goals, which it is aiming to achieve by 2017. Some of the specific ways that sustainable practices are being incorporated to AB's operations are as follows:



Upstream
 * Committed to reduce water risks and improve water management in all of the agricultural areas where it produces barley. One method that has been introduced is the promotion of an irrigation scheduler program, called AgriMet, linking local climate station data to a web and mobile application that delivers accurate evapotranspiration and other climate parameters, allowing growers to better optimize their irrigation water management.
 * Reducing carbon emissions (those due to transportation) by 15 percent through measures like truck sharing with retail partners, increased reliance on trains and boats, fuel efficient driving practices, and alternative fuel
 * A specific example of a boat pilot project is the beer boat that AB InBev is testing presently. This boat transports empty bottles by boat through the Belgian rivers. One beer boat transports the equivalent of 11 trucks for a distance of 80 km, saving huge amount of energy. While this project is not feasible in all 25 of the countries in which AB InBev operates, it can clearly have major impacts in the areas where it is feasible.
 * Partnerships with the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy to monitor water quality of water sources used by breweries. While the partnership with the Nature Conservancy is still in the early stages, the partnership with the World Wildlife Fund had huge success in Brazil through engaging about 8,000 people in training, lectures, conservation and recovery activities, such as planting seedlings and water quality monitoring in 6 streams. The project developed and implemented a Restoration Plan with soil restoration in four springs, exotic species management in headwaters area, 5,700 saplings planted in a total of 8.738 m2 reforestation area, 150m2 of agroforestry.
 * Investing in aluminum bottle production capacity by expanding its projects at its Metal Container Corporation (MCC) facility in Arnold, MO. This is sustainable not only because it enables increased reliance on aluminum bottles, which are seen as more environmentally friendly than their glass counterparts, but also because it creates well-paying jobs for the local community.



Production and brewhouse operations
 * The company says it has introduced about 50 million PET two-liter bottles (100 percent recycled) to the Brazilian market. By the end of 2013, the company expects that number to nearly double to about 94 million recycled PET bottles across the country. At the current production scale, these bottles use 2,100 fewer tons of packaging materials, save 9.2 cubic meters of landfill for every ton of PET bottles recycled, emit 70% less carbon by using 70% less energy, and use 20% less water than manufacturing new plastic bottles
 * Bio-Energy Recovery Systems (BERS), a method of turning the nutrients in wastewater from the brewing process into renewable biogas. First used at our New Jersey yeast facility in 1985, BERS technology is now used at ten U.S. breweries and is responsible for generating 9.5 percent of our fuel needs.  Our communities also benefit from our use of BERS technology because it lowers the electricity demand on community wastewater treatment facilities by reducing organic material in the leftover water.
 * In 2010, Anheuser-Busch began experimenting with solar arrays on the roofs of their breweries (in Newark, N.J. and Fairfield, CA). At peak production, the array in NJ is capable of covering nearly ten percent of the brewery’s electricity demand.  The solar panels will produce more than 1.1 million kilowatt hours annually, which is enough to power 125 average-sized New Jersey homes for a year.  These two solar arrays combined mean that Anheuser-Busch is now one of the largest users of solar power in the U.S. brewing industry.
 * Nutri-Turf Farms -- Located near the Jacksonville and Fort Collins breweries, Anheuser-Busch’s Nutri-Turf farms apply nutrient-rich leftover water from the brewing process to help grow renewable biofuel crops.
 * Recycling solid waste -- AB InBev recycles 99 percent of the solid waste generated in the brewing and packaging process, including beechwood chips, aluminum, glass, brewers’ grain, scrap metal, cardboard and many other items.

Use Phase
 * Transport -- shipping beer from its St. Louis brewery using boxcars. The company said using railcars — one can carry four truckloads of beer — would increase efficiency and reduce emissions per shipment. During the first phase, product will be sent by rail to distribution centers in LaPorte, Texas, and Aurora, Colorado. This is estimated to eliminate about 5.4 million passenger car miles per year.
 * Transport -- converted its entire Houston fleet operation to run on compressed natural gas tractors, which are expected to emit 23% less greenhouse gas compared to a diesel engine. This is a pilot program, but it has gotten a lot of attention and won the Fleet Owner's Green Fleet of the Year Award for 2014.

Sierra Nevada Sierra Nevada is a craft brewery located in Chico, CA. It is one of the first successful craft breweries in the United States. In 1980, there were only 89 craft breweries in the United States; currently, there are more than 2,400 craft breweries around the country. The rise of craft breweries came at a time when the younger generation was becoming more aware of environmental issues including recycling and reducing one’s carbon footprint. Therefore, many craft breweries such as Sierra Nevada have created their business structures around sustainable development. The brand has been a leader in sustainability within the beer industry over the past few years and has implemented many successful initiatives to be sure the company is as sustainable and environmentally friendly as it can be. Sierra Nevada has been greatly recognized for its efforts in sustainability. The company has been acknowledged with different awards including 2010 Green Business of the Year given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-Region 9; and the 2012 "Closing the Loop" Commitment which was awarded by California Resource Recovery Association.

Upstream 1. heat recovery units on boilers, fuel cells, and brew kettles that trap energy so in can be reused in different processes. 2. efficient lighting systems in the facility. 3. motion sensors and timers to be sure no energy is being wasted. 4. variable frequency devices
 * Solar Panels-- Sierra Nevada's facility is home to one of the largest privately owned solar arrays in the United States. Throughout the facility, there are 10,573 panels which produce two megawatts of DC power. In 2012, these panels were able to supply the facility with 19% of its total electricity needs. This comes out to about 2,876,115 kWh which is equivalent to the power needed for 250 average households in America.
 * Hydrogen Fuel Cells-- Sierra Nevada is unique in the fact that it is the sole company in the United States to house hydrogen fuel cells on its premises. The company has a total of four fuel cells which combined produce about one Megawatt of DC power. This in total provides the brewery with about 40% of its energy needs. All energy coming from the hydrogen fuel cells is made using non-combustion technology.
 * Along with Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Solar Panels, the company has implemented a variety of tools to assist in energy efficiency. These tools include:
 * Ingredients-- The company transports beer ingredients in the most sustainable ways possible. For example, malt is delivered via rail as opposed to via truck, which drastically reduces emissions. Additionally, leftover ingredients such as grain, hops, and yeast are fed to cattle on local farms.
 * Energy Tracking-- on the Sierra Nevada website, anyone can view real-time monitoring of electricity production from the facility's fuel cells and solar panels.

Production and brewhouse operations
 * Wastewater-- Sierra Nevada's brewing facility includes an on-site wastewater treatment facility. The wastewater treatment facility takes water used by the brewery and runs it through a treatment which makes it safe to send back to the public water supply.
 * Packaging-- The company uses cans and glass bottles as frequently as it can-- this type of packaging is the easiest to recycle. Sierra Nevada works with local packaging vendors as much as possible to decrease its carbon footprint.
 * The facility was able to divert 99.8% of its solid waste from the landfill in 2012. This was successfully done by implementing creative measures that highly encourage reusing and recycling materials or composting certain waster products.
 * Sierra Nevada uses the only HotRot composting system in the United States. This system successfully creates organic waste from the brewing facility and on-site restaurant into compost which can be used around other areas of the facility such as the barley field and estate hop field.

Use Phase
 * Transport-- Sierra Nevada recognizes how difficult it is to transport its product from the facility to store shelf without some sort of great environmental impact. The company ships the majority of its product to the East Coast via train. Shipping the product via rail is 50% cleaner than shipping it by truck.
 * Transport-- A brand new brewery is currently under construction and will be located in Mills River, NC. The establishment of this brewery will greatly reduce the company's transportation impact.