Go Greener, Australia

So, you’re out at the pub with a few friends. Or maybe you’re having a relaxing afternoon watching a game on tv, or having a well-earned rest after working on your organic vegie patch. You decide to have a beer - but did you know you can stay eco-friendly while you do it? Here’s 4 ways we can be more eco-friendly when we’re drinking beer, starting with the easy choices:

1. Choose an eco-friendly container
G Magazine has a regular column called “Versus”, where they look at the environmental footprints of competing items to see which one is best. In their March issue this year, they researched beer in kegs (served on tap), in bottles and in cans. It turns out that since kegs are so long-lasting and reusable (20 year lifespan, reused 22 times a year) that buying your beer on tap is the best bet even after transportation and washing the glasses is taken into account. If you’re drinking at home, remember to recycle your bottles and cans.

2. Choose beer from a greener brewer
There’s a few beer makers who are greening their production methods, so why not give them your support?

Coopers (look for the Environment section in the left-hand menu) have an energy-efficient brewery which uses their own co-generation plant and returns excess energy to the grid. They’ve also reduced the amount of packaging they use, and designed their new plant to reduce their production waste and water use.

Cascade are selling Cascade Green, which is 100% offset. They first improved their water-efficiency by 30% and reduced their energy emissions by 16% before paying for those offsets, which is good to hear. They make a few other green claims, such as “our cardboard packaging is 100% recyclable”, but cardboard usually is, so I’m not getting too excited about that Still, their website lets you give them suggestions for other stuff they can do to improve.

3. Choose local beer
Australians are lucky to have fantastic micro-breweries in every major city. If you buy beer from a brewery near you, you’re cutting back on the amount of transport needed to get your beer. If you get to know your local brewer, you might even be able to influence them to green their business up a bit. Let them know that Mountain Goat, the makers of Australia’s first certified organic beer, have a brewery with solar panels which was built from reclaimed and reused materials. They also harvest their rainwater and give their employees bonuses if they ride in to work instead of driving. A bit of healthy competition for Australia’s greenest micro-brewery can only be a good thing!

If you’re not in a major city, choose beers from your state, or Australian instead of imported. Check out The Beermapping Project or Brew.com.au for a listing of all the breweries near you.

4. Brew your own
This requires a bit more effort, but hey, it might turn out to be the most useful hobby you’ve had. By brewing your own, you’re cutting back on the transport pollution created by trucking beer around the place, and you can re-use existing bottles. If your homebrew is any good your friends might do you favours in exchange for a six-pack. Best of all, it’s cheap compared to how much you’d spend on a night at the pub. The instructions and tips are easily found online, and there’s quite a few communities to give you a hand if you get stuck.

The lower-impact and more local your beer is, the better off we all are. My local favourite is Little Creatures, or Bootleg Brewery if I’m holidaying in the South-West. If you’ve got a local brewery to recommend, let us know in the comments. Cheers!