The New Belgium Brewing Company located in Colorado, USA has set green goals for itself. It seems as though their old logo of a bicycle wheel is beginning to take new meaning especially when it comes to the company’s commitment to wind energy in which the company has invested heavily.

The Belgium Brewing Company is best known for its famous “Fat Tire” amber ale and the company pays a lot in terms of its interest rates for its wind generated power. However the draw back of this high interest rate was the negative effect it was having on employee’s profit sharing program. When the company asked employees if they should scrap the program (wind power) the majority answered ‘no’ in reply.

In addition to wind power the New Belgium Brewing Company also uses a methane capture system which satisfies around 10% of their plant’s demand for gas. The company also uses technology such as the closed loop brew kettle which is responsible for heating the sugars needed in think sheets rather than doing it all at once in order to store heat as well as to reduce the consumption of natural gas.

Trends in B2C Green Energy Marketing

Both wind power and the methane recovery system are fast becoming popular with many American breweries. Breweries such as the Brooklyn Brewery has begun to use wind power and it was the first building in the city of New York to be 100% powered by wind energy as part of their WIND program which is costing the company around 2.5 cents per kilowatt. Another popular and clean technology being used is the methane recovery system. According to projection figures released last year by Anheuser-Busch at least one in seven beers will be produced using renewable energy by the end of 2009.The majority of these technologies will be using biogas captured from numerous landfills. There are Bio-Gas recovery systems operational in both California and Texas with the aim of running U.S. breweries on renewable energy.

Anheuser-Busch’s is also going to include 6 acres of photovoltaic arrays which will be responsible for providing around 3 percent of the brewery’s electricity. The brewery reduces additional costs by recycling over 99% of solid wastes that it generates which was originally inspired by the 19th century practice of feeding cattle brewers’ grain.

The good news about all of this development is that green brewing practices are rapidly picking up pace in numerous breweries around North America. The Steam Whistle Brewing was named the greenest brewery in North America by eatdrinkbetter.com. The company’s efforts can be seen by the deep lake water cooling system which is used as a refrigeration system and their delivery trucks use bio fuel. These types of green technology have not only helped companies become greener but also reduce overhead costs.