New Belgium Brewing Company

New Belgium might be my favorite company in the US, for so many reasons. In addition to making great beer (Fat Tire Ale is their flagship beer), they are also the brewing industry leaders in eco-friendly practices and they treat their workers fantastically.

New Belgium, out of Fort Collins, Colorado, saves $2,500 to $3,000 a month by generating some of its own electricity (the rest comes from wind farms). They have a system that collects methane from the brewing wastewater and uses it to fire an electric generator. In the brew house, heat typically released as steam preheats incoming water. All this adds up to them using 40% less energy per barrel of beer than the average brewer.

Outside Magazine named New Belgium 'Best Place To Work In America' for 2008. Each of the 260 employees gets a free case of beer a week and a free bicycle on the 1-year anniversary of their hire. 40% of the staff rides bikes to work every day! After working there for 5 years, employees get an all-expense paid pilgrimage to Belgium to learn about beer culture.

See, you can make money (annual revenue $70 million) and fantastic beer, treat people well, and still run a Green company. Rock on.

Great Beer

Of all of the trends in American capitalism, the one that makes me most hopeful is the blossoming of the microbrewing industry. 30 years ago, you could get crap mega-corporate beer and that was about it. Now the art of brewing has taken off and Beauty can be sipped in thousands of different forms by brewers across the country and the world. Halleluia!!! Oh, and Avery Czar is a ridiculously good beer.