Beer brewing hops on B corp accreditation

Brick Lane Brewing has become B Corp certified, making it one of the few brewing companies in Australia to hold the global standard. B Corp Certification is granted to applicant organisations that can demonstrate high standards of positive social and environmental impact.

The company invested $50 million into a Melbourne facility to minimise its environmental footprint. Managing Director Paul Bowker said: “Sustainability is no longer a negotiable for any organisation that wants to be taken seriously and from Day 1 Brick Lane has benchmarked itself against the highest standards of environmental and social impact. Becoming a B Corp shows we are on the right track.”

This year, it commenced installation of a 375 kW solar project at the facility. The system will supply 27% of energy requirements and save 374 tonnes of annual CO₂ emissions, claimed to be the equivalent of 81 cars off the road. By the end of 2023, the company aims to be using 100% renewable electricity, to have reduced fugitive CO₂ emissions by 50% and to be certified carbon neutral.

“Ultimately we’re working toward eliminating carbon emissions entirely from beer production by 2025 and by doing so, leading the way for other independent brewers,” Bowker said.

Company initiatives acknowledged in the B Corp Certification process include:

• reducing the ratio of water used to beer produced by 40% to 3.7:1 in 2022 versus the 2019 baseline of 6.1:1
• using only fully recyclable packaging across all company and partner brands
• reducing the electricity and natural gas consumed, per unit of beer produced, by more than half since 2019
• sourcing all CO₂ used in brewing from sustainable fermentation-derived sources, rather than from natural gas, ammonia or other fossil fuels
• eliminating greenhouse gas and ozone depletion potential from refrigeration gasses, by moving from artificial to natural refrigerants
• directing 99.3% of spent grain, the largest waste product in brewing, to farmers in the Greater Melbourne area for use as animal feed, preventing solid waste generation for the landfill.

An estimated 880 truck movements per year will be eliminated from the supply chain, due to a warehouse and logistics business that allows the company to store and deliver beers direct from its site to customers and consumers.