Sustainability initiatives can sometimes feel like a luxury reserved for larger operations with dedicated engineering teams and six-figure capital budgets.
But according to Kevin Ely, owner of Wooly Pig Farm Brewery in Fresno, Ohio, some of the most effective sustainability improvements are neither expensive nor complicated. Instead, they’re often the result of understanding how energy, water and waste move through a brewery and finding creative ways to capture value that’s already there.
“The goal is to reduce the amount of energy consumed, or water consumed, or wastewater generated,” Ely said at the 2026 Ohio Craft Brewers Conference. “The end result of that is really saving lots of money.”
That perspective is increasingly important as breweries face margin pressure from rising ingredient costs, labor expenses and utility rates. While sustainability efforts are often discussed in terms of environmental responsibility, Ely argues you should view them first as business decisions.
“It helps us feel good, and it’s good economically and socially responsible, but it also has a great benefit for the bottom-line business,” he said.
Start With the Cheap Fixes
When you think about sustainability investments, large-scale projects such as solar arrays often dominate the conversation. Ely cautions against making those projects the starting point.
“Solar arrays are shiny and cool and sexy,” he said. “They’re complicated, they’re expensive.”
Before considering major capital expenditures, Ely recommends focusing on what he calls the “low-hanging fruit” such as inexpensive improvements that immediately reduce consumption.
“It’s very important to go around and do things that you can in an inexpensive way to reduce the amount of energy you’re consuming,” he said. “Do the easy things first.”
That process begins with understanding current utility usage and tracking it consistently.
By monitoring electric bills, water consumption and operational trends, breweries can identify inefficiencies that often go unnoticed.
“Just by paying attention, benchmarking, charting, you can start to see oversights,” Ely said. “All of a sudden, there’s a leak somewhere. Or you’re being mischarged.”
For small breweries especially, finding and correcting those hidden costs can generate returns much faster than investing in new equipment.
Look for Energy That’s Already Being Produced
One of Ely’s most successful projects came from a simple observation: his brewery was generating heat that wasn’t being used.
After brewing, hot water remained in his hot liquor tank for extended periods. Rather than allowing that stored energy to dissipate, Ely installed an inexpensive heat exchanger and fan system that redirects the heat into the brewery’s taproom during colder months.
The project cost only a few hundred dollars and required minimal labor.
“It’s free energy, basically,” Ely said.
Now, most breweries can’t necessarily duplicate his exact setup. Instead, Ely encouraged the crowd to examine where energy is being created, wasted or trapped within their own facilities.
Brewhouses, cold storage areas, cellars and taprooms often operate as separate climate zones. Understanding how those zones interact can uncover opportunities to move energy where it’s needed instead of paying to create more of it.
Large breweries may recover heat from air compressors. Others might leverage outdoor temperatures through economizers that reduce refrigeration demands during colder months.
“There’s energy to be moved around,” Ely said. “It’s super easy.”
It shows that sustainability often starts with recovering resources already being paid for.
Water Savings Can Be Bigger Than Expected
While energy costs receive much of the attention, Ely believes water management may offer some of the greatest opportunities for small breweries.
Cleaning operations represent one of the largest sources of water and chemical consumption in a brewery. To better understand those costs, Ely began measuring exactly how much water and cleaning chemistry his operation used. What followed was a series of modifications designed to recover and reuse cleaning solutions more effectively.
Using a relatively inexpensive stainless-steel heat exchanger, Ely developed a process that reheats recovered cleaning chemicals and water for reuse in CIP operations.
The result was significant.
“I’m seeing a reduction in water usage of as much as 70% to 80% and chemical reduction probably about 50%,” he said.
For breweries facing rising utility rates or wastewater fees, those savings can quickly compound.
More importantly, Ely said the improvements came only after measuring actual consumption and identifying where losses occurred.
“Over time, that’s huge,” he said.
READ MORE: Ways To Get Started With Sustainability Self Reporting
Measure First, Invest Second
Perhaps the biggest lesson is that sustainability efforts become far more effective when they’re guided by data rather than guesswork. Ely installed his own water metering system and routinely tracks usage trends. That monitoring allows him to identify changes before they become expensive problems.
“It looks like, okay, I’m doing pretty good,” he said. “Then it’s like, wait a second, I’m trending up. What’s going on?”
The same principle applies whether your brewery is evaluating energy projects, wastewater improvements or future renewable-energy investments.
Without understanding baseline consumption, it’s difficult to know whether an investment is actually delivering value.
If you are considering larger sustainability projects, Ely recommends first reducing waste wherever possible. Lower consumption means smaller future investments and faster returns.
The breweries that see the greatest financial benefits from sustainability aren’t necessarily spending the most money. They’re often the ones paying the closest attention to how their facilities operate.
