Creature Comforts Brewing Co. achieved TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) Silver Level Certification for its Southern Mill facility’s zero waste efforts earlier this year. Administered by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), TRUE helps facilities measure, improve, and recognize zero waste performance by encouraging the adoption of sustainable waste management and reduction practices, which contribute to positive environmental, health, and economic outcomes.
Creature Comforts’ production facility located at Southern Mill achieved a 99.8-percent diversion rate, with less than one percent of waste material generated in its operations heading to a landfill. Out of 5 million pounds of waste material generated, slightly over 9,000 pounds went to landfills. Several waste-reduction practices Creature Comforts incorporated since opening the facility in 2018 made it eligible for the certification including:
- A spent grain silo enabled the brewery to process over 4,000,000 pounds of grain into livestock feed
- Separate collection of hard-to-recycle stretch film plastic delivered to CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) monthly
- Minimal amount of waste associated with input materials
- Ongoing composting efforts
Waste affects every part of our communities and effective waste management strategies are critical to ensuring both public and environmental health. By pursuing TRUE certification, Creature Comforts Brewing Co. demonstrates a commitment to sustainability leadership by shifting to circular thinking and prioritizing processes, operations, and actions to reduce waste and resources throughout their system lifecycle.
“We believe that good businesses are good neighbors – not just in our community impact efforts but also in our impact from our operations on our local environment,” said Sustainability Manager Jacob Yarbrough. “Getting zero waste certified means that we’re putting less pressure on our local solid waste department, which makes us a better neighbor in our community. TRUE certification asks businesses to look at many different aspects of their operations – from recycling data to redesigning existing systems to minimize waste generation. We wanted to use the certification process to recognize the good work we were already doing while using some of the more difficult tasks to improve our waste management program. The certification was both a recognition of positive programs and an opportunity to stretch ourselves and what we could do.”
“In our current system, many of our globally wasteful practices stem from a lack of design and are the result of inefficient business practices,” notes Peter Templeton, President and CEO of U.S. Green Building Council and GBCI. “Waste is a design failure, and managing waste is a design challenge for which the TRUE Rating System provides a comprehensive framework. By implementing TRUE certification, Creature Comforts Brewing Co. demonstrates their commitment to a more thoughtful and sustainably designed business.”
The TRUE certification comes on the heels of the brewery’s local wheat initiative partnering with DaySpring Farms to source their organic locally grown wheat to brew year-round Athena. The partnership emphasizes Creature Comforts’ commitment to the community and small farmers.
The brewery believes actively choosing to work with local suppliers will contribute to making local communities stronger, as more of our dollars stay in the local economy when partnering locally. In addition to managing waste generation and local farm partnerships, Creature Comforts’ sustainability program looks at other externalities of its operations: electricity usage, natural gas usage, carbon dioxide usage, carbon emissions, and water usage.
The brewery will continue looking for opportunities to become an industry leader across each of these categories and lower its CO2 emissions compared to the baseline year of 2020. To learn more about Creature Comforts, visit www.creaturecomfortsbeer.com.
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