Looking at websites alone, it seems very few breweries are talking about sustainability. Of the 521 brewery websites reviewed, only 85 (16%) had any mention of environmental sustainability.
Lots of breweries used their website to talk about using great ingredients, about working with the local community and supporting thier brilliant teams – which is all fantastic to hear, but is it time to ask, are breweries aware of the scientific facts around climate change and ready to take action:
- The quality of ingredients is at risk from climate change – Barley growers have already noticed a drop in the quality of barley due to droughts and greater unpredictability in weather (source)
- Taking action on reducing carbon emissions can have great cost saving benefits – 71% of SMEs surveyed by Carbon Trust say cost reduction is the main benefit of energy efficiency projects (source)
- Staff and customers WANT companies to take action – 83% of workers say their company was ‘not doing enough’ to fight climate change (source).
This silence on sustainability is hardly unique to the brewing sector. Companies in every sector are failing to take necessary action and over two-thirds (68%) of SMEs do not have a consistently documented and implemented energy policy (source).
A lack of skills and knowledge has been citied by some as a reason for not talking about sustainability efforts and 35% of marketers say complex jargon and a lack of metrics is preventing further action (source). Concerns about greenwashing are a perrenial problem, luckily the CMA’s Green Claims Code makes it easier to check environmental claims are genuinely green
If you’re looking to get started on taking action, there are plenty of tools and support available, including our very own accredited Carbon Literacy Training course for breweries. There are also some great examples of breweries that are taking action and finding ways to talk about their efforts:
What are breweries saying about sustainability?
Making a commitment
It doesn’t take many words to tell customers what actions you’re committing to. For examples of pledges and commitments, take a look at Burton Town Brewery, St Austell and Drop Project.
Reporting progress
“What gets measured gets managed” as the old adage goes. It’s vital to be transparent about commitments, and for great examples of impact reports, look no further than Beerblefish or Tap Social.
Work with others
Breweries don’t have to go it alone, and some great partnerships have been forged, for example: Abbeydale‘s work with Sheffield & Rotherham wildlife trust and Growling Gibbon Co‘s support of the World Land Trust.
Methodology
A list of breweries was put together using SIBA’s directory of brewery members as a starting point. QuaffAle‘s list of brewery website links also came in handy.
For each brewery, around 2 minutes was spent checking ‘Home’ and ‘About us’ pages and reviewing recent blog posts for any mention of environmental commitments, actions to reduce carbon footprints and impact measuring.
The study is in no way exhaustive, and the level of commitment was not quantified. Results were recorded as a binary yes/no answer to the judgement ‘does the brewery clearly mention environmental sustainability on their website?’
Further work
Perhaps websites are not the best platform to talk to customers about sustainability, and maybe loads of work is going on behind the scenes. Websites of just over a quarter (28%) of the 1,828 active UK brewers were reviewed (source), Maybe if the search was widened to include more breweries, it would be found more are taking action and talking about it on their websites.
Next steps include reviewing more brewery websites and social media pages. Beyond that, the development of a framework for quantifying commitments and progress is planned.
For more information, and for advice on how you or a brewery you know can take action and talk about sustainability with staff and customers, reach out to chris@86-carbon.co.uk.