How to rethink that next drink...
A new generation of climate-aware drinksmakers show us a glimpse of the future
Simple climate action // I S S U E 3 8 // B O O Z E
Before we close out our month on the climate impact of a decent drink, we’re delighted to welcome Cadence Bambenek onto the Hothouse team.
You’ll have noticed her byline in the past few weeks, but as well as writing she’s helping us with fact-checking, production and finding applications. She has worked for Discover, Popular Science, Wisconsin State Journal and Business Insider, did a brief stint at the social science research center at Columbia University, and is a journalism graduate. We’re extremely lucky to have her talent and energy on board.
We asked Cadence what interested her about Hothouse. “I grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, where Lake Superior is visible from nearly every vantage point in the city because it's on a small hill,” she said. “Growing up, I took all this nature for granted, the clean water and air, and didn't fully appreciate it until I studied abroad in China, where the riverways are a murky green color and blue skies are a rarity because of all the pollution. So I guess I have a deeper sense of how interconnected our behaviors are to the environment. I want to be part of Hothouse so I can help encourage the conversation about reimagining a more sustainable culture and society, and help those stories reach a wider audience through personal and colorful writing.”
Cadence is wrapping up the final week of our month-long exploration of climate and booze, and has pulled together some practical information to help inform the decisions you make in your own life.
Alcohol and you
By Cadence Bambenek
Humanity’s thirst for alcohol has created a $1.7 trillion industry, but it won’t be the same after climate change. As its weather warms up, Britain is fast becoming one of the world’s finest vintners. Spirit makers are distilling inspiration, and vodka, using waste from coffee bean fruit to grocery store discards. Brewers are creating brews from leftover bread.
But those are exceptions. The largest booze makers prioritize efficiency and convenience to keep profit margins high. A $30 bottle of “Russian” vodka may contain only 50 to 70 cents worth of alcohol, most of it derived from corn-grown ethanol in the American midwest.
All this drives emissions equivalent to 1.9 million households per year from American booze alone. It’s not that alcohol is such a large emitter itself. It’s just embedded in carbon-intensive global systems that produce almost everything we consume: agriculture, energy, and supply chains for raw materials.
Energy is the most carbon-intensive part of making alcoholic drinks. Every step, from manufacturing to distribution, begins with high temperatures: melting sand and minerals into glass to create bottles (2600 to 2800°F); smelting aluminum to create cans (1220°F); brewing beer’s mash (148° F to 158°F); and distilling alcohol itself (200°F). And that’s all before the energy that goes into transportation and refrigeration.
Yet as we’ve learned this month, alcohol makers have been eager to advertise their green credentials without addressing real sources of emissions. Most sustainability efforts instead focus on trees planted, waste reduced, or paper straws.
Lots of sustainability talk encourages individuals to drink locally, choose tap beer over canned, or boxed wine over bottled. But deeper change is needed. We’ve outlined the most impactful things to bring about a climate-friendly booze industry.
Track the challenge
There are nearly 9,000 breweries in the United States, but fewer than 200 track their emissions through the Brewers Association’s Sustainability Benchmarking Project. The project allows craft breweries to compare themselves to breweries of similar output and to share best practices across all sizes of breweries, from “how to use water more efficiently, generating less wastewater and solid waste, decreasing total energy usage,” to “reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Most Americans live less than 10 miles from the nearest brewery. That means by asking the ones nearest you to up their sustainability standards, you can have a tangible impact starting right in your own backyard.
Use our email template to ask your local breweries and wineries how they track and report their greenhouse gas emissions.
Dear [BREWERY],
I’m a resident of [COMMUNITY]. I’m reducing my family’s carbon footprint, and will be using low-carbon products where possible. As a craft beer connoisseur, I’d like to know what you're planning to do to eliminate your brewery’s carbon footprint. Firms like Google have recently committed to only consuming zero-carbon energy around the clock by 2030.
This is a great start. The brewing industry consumes a lot of energy and raw materials. Joining the Brewers Association’s Sustainability Benchmarking Project is a step your brewer can take to measure and hold your business to the standard set by your peers in craft brewing as well as learn best practices.
I love to drink local, but I want to know that my choice is the most sustainable. Could your brewery join the Sustainability Benchmarking Project and let me know what else you plan to do to reduce emissions? I’m especially eager to learn about any on-site renewable energy projects, or plans to transition to entirely electric staff vehicle fleets.
Many thanks,
[NAME]
The Brewery Finder from CraftBeer.com can also help you look up breweries to email near you. Try the “Contact Us” page on each brewery's website to find an email address.
Clean up our electricity grid
One of the most impactful things we can do is bringing more clean energy onto the grid. The more clean energy is in demand, whether on our utility bill or at the ballot box, the more the industry can reduce the single largest source of emissions.
Ask your state and local governments to work with utility providers to increase the availability of green energy on the local grid. The World Resources Institute’s Local Government Renewables Action Tracker allows you to view the steps taken by your local government to increase access to renewables.
Choose better booze
Supporting businesses that source sustainable booze goes a step farther than asking pouring tap over drinking from a bottle. One of the biggest things customers can do is choose beverages made from agricultural byproducts rather than ones distilled from resource-intensive crops like wheat or corn (40% of the United State’s food supply ends up as greenhouse gas-emitting food waste). That’s far better than adding another field of corn. Some of our favorites below:
Good Vodka: Last week’s Q&A. A spirit distilled from coffee fruit waste.
Toast Ale: Beer made from leftover bread.
Peach Street Distillers: Spirits distilled from fruit to small or scarred to sell retain.
Fetzer Vineyards: The first carbon-neutral wine maker in the United States, this California winery runs on 100% renewable energy.
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Hothouse is a weekly climate action newsletter written and edited by Mike Coren, Jemima Kiss, Cadence Bambenek and Jim Giles. We rely on readers to support us, and everything we publish is free to read.
