The National Steering Committee (NSC) of Small Business Environmental Assistance Programs (SBEAPs) & Small Business Ombudsmen (SBO’s) has recognized the Brewers Association (BA) for its leadership nationwide in the areas of improving environmental performance, pollution prevention, sustainability, and mentoring.

The Small Business Environmental Assistance Program/Small Business Ombudsman (SBEAP/SBO) National Steering Committee (NSC) Awards are the States’ premier environmental awards program for recognizing outstanding environmental leadership among small businesses and small business assistance providers.

The Brewers Association was recognized for working with the Colorado SBEAP on their Sustainable Brewing Summit, supporting breweries by providing guidance on energy, solid waste, water and wastewater reduction measures, and creating a benchmarking tool so that craft breweries can anonymously enter environmental efficiency data and compare their progress to others in their industry.

Brewers Association member Great Divide Brewing Company received the Small Business Environmental Stewardship Award. Great Divide was recognized for working with the Colorado SBEAP on the 2017 Sustainable Brewery Summit, developing an Environmental Management System which lead to changes in recycling or reuse of their materials or byproducts, reductions in environmental impacts, retrofitting operations with environmentally-friendly designs, and sharing what they learned about sustainable practices with other breweries at the Sustainable Brewing Summit.

John Stier, Sustainability Mentor for the Brewers Association, said “It is extremely exciting for our organization to be recognized for work that by its nature provides gratification. As a member driven organization, it is important to realize that this honor is shared by the large number of brewers that contribute time and resources to position small and independent breweries as environmental leaders in their communities.”

The BA provides the brewing community with extensive resources to help brewers maintain a healthy balance between stewardship, social enrichment and economic vitality including manuals, benchmarking tools and mentoring.