Emissions cut but brewery says it - and others - can do better. The owners of a New Zealand craft brewery, internationally lauded for its achievements in sustainability, have a message on the issue for other small Kiwi businesses: You don't need to be perfect.
"We have set out to do our best, it's at the core of what we do," says Kirsty McKay, who with her partner Mike Sutherland owns Sawmill Brewery in Matakana, north of Auckland. "But in no way are we perfect, we've still got a lot to do.
"There is a saying: 'We don't need a handful of people doing sustainability perfectly; we need millions of people doing it imperfectly."
The couple, who have overseen a massive change in the way they operate to be more environmentally responsible, are looking to expand their brewery and to create even greater environmental efficiencies in production processes.
Sawmill, which they bought in 2010, was selected by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority as a pilot brewery to investigate the potential for energy and carbon reduction for the brewing industry as a whole.
It is also a B Corp certified company, a rating conferred by global organisation B Lab which measures social and environmental performance against a rigid set of criteria.
Sawmill – which produces more than a million litres of beer a year – is the only brewery in New Zealand to achieve B Corp status and is one of just 5700 certified companies across 185 industries in 85 countries as at September 2022.
The brewery is now looking to expand production and solar power capacity and to upgrade both its carbon and waste water re-capture systems. McKay says they have been banking with ANZ for 10 years and are pleased to see the bank supporting businesses with sustainability, with the ANZ Business Green Loan.
They first got into the business with a goal of producing excellent beer but McKay says environmental issues are now the bigger picture driving the business.
"We came to the industry because we like beer and because it was an opportunity to work together. The starting point was to make great beer because, if the product is not of high quality, we wouldn't be in a position to be able to do all these other things."
"Water and energy for process heat are the biggest natural resources a brewery uses. For us, it is important we operate in a way that has a positive impact on the environment and the community we are in - and this community is very environmentally aware," McKay says.
Measures introduced by the couple in their "decarbonisation journey" include the installation of a heat recovery system to recycle water - saving around 1.5 million litres of water and 6000kg of LPG every year - and solar panels able to generate up to 97 per cent of the brewery's power needs in summer and 78 per cent in winter.
They capture up to a million litres of water every year from their roof (accounting for 16 per cent of the total they use), have reduced waste to landfill to less than10kg a week, installed grain silos which reduce the number of grain sacks used every year by 12,000 and all sales vehicles are hybrid EVs.
Next month the Brewery will install a carbon recapture system which will replace their purchased CO2 by a minimum of 80 per cent. They are also waiting for consent for a project to capture biogas produced by the breakdown of brewery waste water in man-made ponds – using that biogas in process heat generation to replace LPG. Their longer term goal is to replace LPG requirements altogether.
McKay says the B Corp certification is important because it gives consumers confidence "that what we are doing is measurably making a difference."
"Greenwashing is a real risk to environmental responsibility," she says. "There is a rush by many companies to show all the good things they are doing – but not talk about what they are struggling with. We haven't got everything right and are certainly not perfect and I believe businesses need to be honest about this and be a lot more collaborative in their approach."
ANZ Managing Director Business, Lorraine Mapu, says privately owned businesses like Sawmill are the backbone of the economy and it is important for ANZ to be able to support their sustainability ambitions – no matter how big or small.
"Acting on sustainability brings wider business benefits through staff and stakeholder engagement, together with a positive impact on the environment. We hope an ANZ Business Green Loan will add to the sustainability story of our customers," she says.
The ANZ Business Green loan can be used to fund initiatives that support energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable land and water use and the building, renovating or purchasing of green buildings.
For more information go to: anz.co.nz/business/sustainability-in-business/
and product page anz.co.nz/businessgreenloan
Offer subject to change. Eligibility and lending criteria, terms, conditions and fees apply.