SUSTAINABILITY

Great beer depends on clean watersheds, stable ecosystems, and happy, healthy employees. That's why at Widmer Brothers, we are committed to brewing in the most sustainable way possible, curbing our emissions and overall water, and giving back to our Portland community. To learn more, check out our Annual Sustainability Report.

FROM FIELD TO GLASS: TRACKING BEER'S CARBON FOOTPRINT

To better understand how we can reduce our carbon footprint, we tracked carbon emissions at every stage of our beer's production lifecycle, from raw materials and packaging, to transportation and recycling, for a bottle, keg and can of beer. We learned that one serving of beer can produce up to 600 grams of CO2 emissions for every pint. 

We've been working with the Energy Trust of Oregon since 2006 to reduce our energy usage. We are also a Visionary Partner with Pacific Power's Blue Sky program, and an EPA Green Power Partner, recently installing Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations available for free charges at our Retail store. 

We closed the loop with our CO2 Recovery Plant, reclaiming the CO2 that is naturally produced during fermentation to reuse for packaging and processing beer. 

In 2018, our Pacific Northwest verified carbon offsets through BEF will help grow 9,921 tree seedings. 

WATCHING OUR WATER USAGE

Widmer Brothers Brewing is a founding partner of the Oregon Brewshed® Alliance, which has been raising awareness and funds to support Oregon's waters and forests since 2015, where we are fortunate to brew in one of the country's most resilient watersheds. 

Access to clean, fresh water is crucial to the future of the brewing industry, and we are proud to achieve best in class water usage ratios. Last year we used 4.05 gallons of water for each gallon of beer produced, well under the industry benchmark of 4.89 gallons. 

Our new can line uses water-free internal can rinses and dry-running conveyors to keep water usage low. Additionally, we installed a waterless vacuum pump for our bottle filler, a first in the craft beer industry! The new pump saves 5,000 gallons of water each day. 

We are constantly working to reduce our wastewater discharge, and we reduced our solids by more than 75% to eliminate this pollutant from our discharge, and the EPA recognized our work with the 2018 Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award. 

JOURNEY TO ZERO WASTE

In our journey to zero waste, we send over 10,000 tons of nutritious spent grain each year to local dairy farms, which helps us divert 99.5% of our total waste from landfills. 

Our brewery was the first to pilot Oregon's new refillable bottle that can be washed and reused up to 25 times. 

We convened a group of stakeholders from breweries, hop farms, and other industries to find an upcycling solution for hop bags, one of the most-used brewery materials that we currently cannot recycle. Together, we explored alternative packaging and upcycling ideas - like creating solar shades from previously used hop bags!

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award, EPA P2 Roundtable (2018)

Healthiest Employer in Oregon List (2013-2018)

Top 100 Healthiest Workplaces in America (2015-2018)

Brewbound Large Brewery of the Year (2018)

Sustainability at Work Gold, City of Portland (2011-current)

EPA Green Power Partner (2014-current)

Pacific Power Blue Sky Visionary Partner (2014-current)

Oregon Brewshed® Brewfest Best - Hopworks Collaboration (2017)

MBAA's Brewery Award of Excellence in Sustainability (2015 & 2016)