Creemore Springs Brewery reduces its environmental “beer print”

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With a desire to reduce its environmental “beer print,” Creemore Springs Brewery set about identifying areas of waste and tweaking systems to reduce it.
General manager Paul Swindall, said a Green Team was formed to analyze energy use at the brewery, including electricity, natural gas and water.
“We got a bunch of people together and started asking, where is there waste? We gathered their observations and started making progress,” said Swindall, of operations at the brewery and distribution entre.
Creemore Springs has been recognized for its green initiatives, receiving the Integrated Energy Efficiency Strategy award at the 2018 Canadian Industry Partnership for Energy Conservation Energy Summit.
A bunch of little initiatives added up to overall savings, said Swindall. In 2017, the brewery achieved reductions of 12.1 per cent in natural gas, 9.5 per cent in water and 9.2 per cent in electricity consumption.
“We have been working very hard and making really good progress on environmental initiatives,” said Swindall.
He said the work is part of Molson Coors’ efforts to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and ultimately be a zero-waste operation.
From green bins in the lunchroom to feeding livestock with spent grain and yeast (interestingly, certain animals develop a taste for certain brews), the brewery has achieved a 99 per cent diversion rate. Swindall said they have recently found a company that can recycle their used earplugs and hairnets.
For example, the team took a close look at how much water they were using in both the brewing and cleaning process.
Spring water is used in the brewing process and Swindall said they noticed the amount could be reduced in the making of the wort – the liquid containing the sugars extracted from the malted barley. As a result the tanker trucks made fewer trips to the spring.
They also identified ways of reducing and re-using municipal water used in the various cleaning processes.
From washing the bottles and cans to washing the tanks, over two years, they were able to conserve 4.6 million litres of water, which is equal to 357,538 toilet flushes.
In terms of electricity, adjustments were made to optimize refrigeration and there was a switch to LED lights, and the installation of motion sensors so that the lights weren’t on all the time, resulting in an 85 per cent reduction in costs.
Natural gas is used to fuel the burners that heat the bricks under the copper kettle during the brewing process. That process was also optimized to reduce gas consumption.
Every little adjustment of temperature, be it in the steaming of the lines, refrigeration or the burner settings, amounts to cost savings and a lower beer print.
“People start to see results and feel they are doing something more than just coming in and making beer,” said Swindall.
Plus, he said, there were some incentives offered for employee ideas, such as gift cards and the “green” parking spot located closest to the entrance. In the first quarter, 32 ideas were submitted from all departments.

Contributed photo: Creemore Springs Brewery’s Green Team members Phil Haldane (from left), Lesley Harris, John Stephenson, Paul Swindall, Doug Nicol, and Natalie Brinda. Absent: Evan Walker, Pete Stephens and Emily Mejia.

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