A Canberra-based brewery, Capital Brewing Co., has become certified carbon neutral through the Australian government’s Climate Active program, acquiring offset emissions for all aspects of the business.
Energy use, waste, raw ingredients, packaging, materials, freight, staff communication, and paper used in the office will all be certified carbon neutral in its direct and indirect emissions.
“We’re proud to be recognised by Climate Active as the first brewery in Australia to be certified carbon neutral for our entire operations,” co-founder and co-managing director Tom Hertel told Food Processing.
The brewery will also be investing emissions that are unable to be reduced in the Orana Park Natural Capital Project, a soil carbon project with verified carbon standard credits through the Anhui Guzhen renewable energy project in China.
The project protests the habitats of critically endangered ecosystems and animals by repairing a 33km stretch of the Loddon River near Bendigo and through the creation of a 200ha Open Grassy Woodland predator-proof sanctuary.
These steps reflect the company’s integral goal of reaching zero carbon emissions.
Capital Brewing Co. has also partnered with Pangolin Associates and Climate Active to develop a template that makes it cheaper and easier for other Australian breweries to calculate their carbon emissions.
The template will be available online via the Independent Brewers Association.
There is often the expectation that becoming carbon neutral is restrictive, laborious, and expensive, Hertel told Food Processing.
“With the easy-to-use framework and urgent need to act, we’re calling on our fellow brewers to get on board and, together as an industry, let’s lead the way for real action on climate change,” he said.
To further reduce emissions, Capital Brewing Co. implemented energy, water, waste and chemical reduction strategies and processes such as the 100 per cent renewable electricity at the brewery.
The diversion of 709 tonnes annually of spent grain, hops, and yeast to an organic farm and a new water-cooled refrigerant plant with low global warming potential, was also implemented.
Initiatives currently in development to further improve environmental performance include an automated Clean-In-Place system to recycle water and chemicals used to clean brewery vessels and the transition to an all-electric vehicle fleet.