Comments on: Three Most Environmentally Friendly Beers

By: Eric L.

Eric L. — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:29:09 +0000

Pete Coors, his family, and the Coors company are massive funders and supporters of the Mountain States Legal Foundation (http://www.mountainstateslegal.org/). Graduates of MSLF include Gale Norton and James Watt, two of the most horrifically bad Secretaries of the Interior the US has ever seen. Both are proponents (and James Watt famously so) of “Dominion Theology” which basically states that “God gave us this earth to use as we please, and the world is going to end in the very near future as the Book of Revelation predicts so why would we bother making laws to protect the environment from ourselves?” Also helpful is googling “pete coors for senate”. Sounds like someone is trying to greenwash Coors, in my opinion.

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:46:18 +0000

Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico California is the real deal. They are almost entirely self-powered electrically from solar and high efficency fule cells. They are not faking it by buying credits like NBB or Brooklyn. (100% wind powered, what a laugh).

But realistically, almost all of the emodied energy in a six pack is in the packaging. That is why New Belgium and Brooklyn are greenwashing – hyping their green cred to sell product. In Old Belgium, that little country in Europe, beer lovers return their empties for reuse. New Belgium does not offer consumers that option, even in their home town of Fort Collins, Colorado.

Sierra Nevada does not greenwash. The only way I learned of the company’s environmental commitment was by reading engineering journals where the accomplishments were profiled for others to learn from.

A good PR department is not the same as a commitment to the environment.

By: Jeff F.

Jeff F. — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:31:27 +0000

You really should look into the St. Arnold MicroBrewery in Houston. They have awesome beer… but they are also very very eco-friendly.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:40:44 +0000

But New Belgium & Brooklyn Brewery should go on with their bad selves! New Belgiums also gives faithful empoloyees a lifesize version of a “Fat Tire” bike for greener commuting.

But if you’re interested in what greenish things the biggies (Foster, Anhesier-Busch) are attempting beer-wise: http://envirovore.com/content/view/75/1/

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:32:48 +0000

No, no, no! Coors is not environmentally friendly, at least not to anglers in Montana. They’ve been trying to take away our public stream access rights for years:
http://www.montanariveraction.org/stream.access.html

(Read: Out of state home and landowners don’t want local fishermen in their river during the two weeks they’re actually here.)

Anglers (and hunters) pay the fees responsible for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks – these recreationalists shouldn’t be kept off the very rivers that the organization manages.

I used to love the Banquet Beer, but no more!