Marketing

Brewhouse No 4 goes Platinum

A Platinum Leadership award in Energy and Environmental Design has been presented to Diageo, making it the first manufacturing plant in Ireland and the first major brewery in the world to achieve the highest possible merit award from the US Green Building Council.

LEED certification is the internationally-recognised benchmark for green certification developed by the US Green Building Council to promote sustainability in the building and construction industry.

The world’s largest brewhouse at St James’s Gate can produce 300,000 pints every two hours. Efficiencies and energy savings made since the opening of Brewhouse No 4 include:

  • The electricity savings from the project are equivalent to the electricity consumption of 2,760 houses
  • 33% less thermal energy is now needed in production resulting in steam savings equivalent to 32,000 barrels of oil
  • The new Brewhouse uses 14% less water to make a brew
  • In addition, St James’s Gate has begun extracting and treating its own water on site, taking 500,000 cubic metres of demand off Dublin City’s drinking water network – equivalent to one week of water production for the entire city.
  • The overall energy saved in one year by Brewhouse No 4 is equivalent to the total energy consumed by the entire Irish industrial sector in one day.

“There are very few LEED Platinum industrial buildings around the world quite simply because to reach this level of certification requires a company to push boundaries and consider a whole new way of thinking about how a company impacts on the environment,” said Rick Fedrizzi in presenting the award, ”Today we’re recognising Diageo’s best-in-class building strategies and practices and a company that’s serious about innovation, sustainability and the environment.”

Dave O’ Leary, Director of Engineering Excellence at Diageo, responded “When we were developing plans for Brewhouse No 4 we were tasked with protecting a brewing process that is over 250 years old while creating the world’s most energy-efficient brewhouse and the most environmentally-friendly building we possibly could.

“As a result of the investment that was made in St. James Gate by Diageo we can now say that we are most environmentally sustainable brewery in the world, something we are all incredibly proud of.”

Colin O’ Brien Director of Operations at Diageo, added, “The St James’s Gate site is core to supporting the growth and development of Diageo’s global beer business and its flagship Guinness stout brand.“

Brewhouse No 4 also received an ‘Outstanding’ in Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology – the highest BREEAM score of any industrial building in the world in 2014.


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