Carbon-negative Brewdog – Drinks Industry Ireland

Scottish craft brewer BrewDog, which opened its first Dublin premises the ‘Outpost’ at the end of 2019 and which is the Number One imported craft beer in Ireland, intends to become carbon negative by removing twice as much carbon from the air as it emits annually.

“We fully acknowledge that we’re a long way from perfect. However we’re determined to rapidly and fundamentally change everything as we work hard to ensure we have a positive impact on the planet.” – BrewDog’s James Watt.

This would make it the first carbon-negative international beer brand in the world as it sets out to fight climate change and have a positive impact on the planet.

The move is founded in its belief that carbon-neutral is no longer enough and that businesses should be having a positive impact on the planet. To this end BrewDog is unveiling a climate action program through £30 million of green investments across its business.

As part of this it has also purchased 2,050 acres of Scottish Highlands, just north of Loch Lomond, to create the BrewDog Forest and plans to plant one million trees over the next few years.

Work is expected to start on the BrewDog Forest in early 2021.

The brewer also plans to create a sustainable campsite on the land that will host sustainability retreats and workshops for the general public in addition to inviting its 130,000 Equity Punk investors to help with tree-planting from early 2021.

In order to double-remove all of its carbon until it’s able to begin planting the BrewDog Forest, the brewer will be working with offset partners on a series of projects.

“Our carbon. Our problem,” commented BrewDog Co-Founder James Watt, “So we’re going to fix it ourselves. Huge change is needed right now and we want to be a catalyst for that change in our industry and beyond.

Green infrastructure projects currently underway at BrewDog include:

brewery and UK bars now wind-powered
turning its spent grain into green gas to power the brewery
building an on-site anaerobic digestor to turn its waste water into clean water and produce food-grade C02 to carbonate its beers
investing in the electrification of its vehicle fleet
through investing in local brewing sites across the UK, the EU, the US and Australia it has significantly reduced the miles its beer must travel to reach the consumer.

Sales of BrewDog here have doubled so far in 2020 as people trade-up at home rather than go to the pub, observes the company which just launched its Hazy Jane varietal last month.

Read the full report outlining how BrewDog has calculated its carbon footprint.

For more news and information on BrewDog head to @brewdogofficial on Instagram or @brewdog on Twitter.

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