Translations

GULPENER BIER for a sustainable beer production process

4. Environment

Green design

Sector Food-processing

Year 2008

Country Netherlands

Transmitter

Context

Producing the same quantities of beer while reducing the consumption of fossil energies and water is a challenge the brewing industry has to take up. The small Gulpener brewery produces its beer adjusting to sustainability and environmental responsibility.

Objectives

- Managing the whole supply and production chain in a responsible way as far as raw materials, energy and water are concerned.

APPROACH

In 2001, the Gulpener brewery prepared a letter of intent on sustainable development and identified actions to be undertaken to meet this issue. Today, Gulpener stands out as:

All ingredients required to produce beer are grown locally, following environmentally-friendly methods. Only “green” energies –solar and hydraulic- have been used since 2004. Even the manufacturing process partly uses solar energy.

Its 40 supplying farmers do not use pesticides and their harvest is bought at prices higher than world prices by 10%.The use of water in the manufacturing process is optimised. ll bottles are recyclable and minimum packaging is used.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

- Good reputation.

- High motivation of the employees.

- Satisfaction of the consumers for the products.

Benefits

- Thanks to the location of the production lines, transportation costs and CO2 discharges are reduced.

- The cultivated land is neither polluted nor depleted.

- The water consumption of the manufacturing process is divided by 3.

- Gulpener offers its consumers a quality beer.

- The choice not to pasteurize beer saves 4 million megajoules a year.