The National Beer Wholesalers Association has published a little brochure titled America’s Beer Distributors: Delivering Sustainable Solutions to Protect Tomorrow’s Environment. It contains a few vignettes describing sustainability efforts by a handful of distributors across the country.
For example, Crescent Crown Distributors in Phoenix is using hybrid diesel-electric delivery trucks. Manhattan Beer Distributors in New York is using compressed natural gas vehicles. And Wil Fischer Distributing in Springfield, Missouri runs vehicles on biodiesel made from used cooking oil. Bay Area Beverage Company in Richmond, California covered their warehouse with solar photovoltaic cells and now produces more energy than they consume.
Nice job on the sustainability brochure, NBWA folks. Perhaps next you could survey your members on sustainability initiatives and publish an annual report aggregating the results?
Interesting info. but it sounds like a pr/propaganda stunt to me. Right on with the entire membership and their own sunstainability efforts being polled. I’d like to know the percentage of members that responded. Considering how effective they’ve been at helping to defeat bottle bills around the country to me its a smoke job. Hell we don’t even have a beverage container law in the Nation’s Capital! Why don’t you ask them about that.
I’m more than willing to praise the handful who are taking steps toward sustainability, even if most of the distributors don’t care. In fact, its even more appropriate to laud those Bay Area Beverage Company.
The big “justice” issue with beer wholesalers is, in my opinion, the three tier laws in many states that effectively promote the big national brewers to the detriment of local breweries.
[...] Sustainable beer [see this link] [...]