New Belgium Brewing honored as ‘Best for the Environment’ for Sustainable Initiatives

A photo from the New Belgium Brewing Co.’s beautiful brewhouse in Fort Collins, Colo.

Eighty-four businesses across 30 industries received recognition for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges — now New Belgium Brewing Co. is one of them. B Lab has named New Belgium to its third annual “B Corp Best for the Environment” list for creating a positive environmental impact. The B Corp Best for the Environment list honors 84 businesses that earned an environmental impact score in the top 10 percent of all Certified B Corporations on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment. The list honors micro, small and mid-sized businesses.

New Belgium became a Certified B Corporation in 2013 and just six months ago B Lab also awarded the brewery with the “B Corp Best for the Workers” award, a distinction that honors companies that create the most positive environment for their employees.

“Environmental responsibility has been a core value and belief at New Belgium from day one, and receiving recognition for the work we’ve done in this area is a great honor,” said Bryan Simpson, PR director for New Belgium Brewing. “Being a Certified B Corporation puts us in tremendous company with other businesses doing extraordinary things. In that sense, we all get to learn from one another.”

The Best for the Environment companies come from over 30 different industries such as financial services, consulting, apparel and personal care. Thirty-six percent operate in the service sector, 33 percent in wholesale/retail and 25 percent in manufacturing. A quarter of honorees are based outside the U.S., with 13 percent of companies operating in emerging markets including Brazil, Colombia and Chile. A full list of honorees can be found right here.

“It’s great to see so many diverse companies on this year’s Best for the Environment list,” said B Lab co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert. “With representatives from 30 different industries, it once again shows that all companies can compete to be the best of the best at creating a positive impact.”

Each honored company is a Certified B Corporation, which means they use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and have met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. Today there are over 990 certified B Corporations, across 60 industries and 32 countries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business.

B Lab released the Best for the World list (overall impact) in March and will release separate lists recognizing the companies Best for the Community (community impact), and Best for Workers (employee impact) throughout 2014.