Sharing kegs reduces a brewery’s carbon footprint, new study says

A TON of beer at the Great American Beer Festival arrived there via MicroStar kegs, which was a pretty efficient — and sustainable — way to get all of that beer there from all over the country, with few headaches for the breweries.

We’ve written about the shared-asset keg management concept previously. Recently, a study by John Heckman, Ph.D with PE International and commissioned by MicroStar Logistics, showed that by sharing a pool of kegs rather than owning their own, over 200 craft brewers helped reduce their collective carbon footprint by over 3 million kg of Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2013. The study could be used as a benchmark to help the craft beer industry further minimize its carbon footprint each year.

“To put this in perspective, these craft brewers saved the equivalent amount of CO2e emitted by nearly 3 million pounds of coal by working together to reduce their total truck mileage,” Heckman said. “It’s clear that MicroStar’s pooled asset model is inherently more sustainable than the alternative model of a brewer owning their own kegs.”

MicroStar also recently joined the EPA’s SmartWay Program committing to further track and reduce transportation-related emissions and fuel use. Through programs like SmartWay, MicroStar uses the collective leverage of their customer community to increase the adoption of environmentally-conscious tools and approaches by their freight carriers.

“Sustainability is critically important to our customers and the craft beer industry overall,” said Dan Vorlage, MicroStar’s Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. “We’re proud to help brewers achieve their sustainability goals by leveraging our unique model, our scale and our logistics expertise to take empty keg miles off the road. We see these results as just the beginning of what this industry can accomplish.”

PE International is a global provider of integrated solutions for enterprise sustainability with proven software, sustainability databases and unparalleled consulting expertise. With more than 20 years of experience and 20 offices around the globe, PE International works with 2,500 clients including companies such as Bayer, Hewlett-Packard, Interface, Kraft Foods, Siemens, Unilever and Volkswagen.