Sustainable development in the craft brewing industry: A case study of Iowa brewers

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the resource‐intensive brewing industry has led to U.S. and state‐level initiatives to encourage sustainable craft brewing practices. These efforts raise questions about brewers' current brewing practices and the conditions and factors that might influence a brewer's decision to adopt sustainable practices. We conducted an in‐depth survey of Iowa craft brewers in 2019 to evaluate current sustainability practices within breweries. In addition, we elicited brewer perceptions regarding consumer preferences and willingness‐to‐pay for sustainably produced beer. We analyze these factors together with data on brewery production characteristics and the brewer's personal beliefs and demographics. While most breweries in our sample track key environmental metrics to some degree, many of them lack environmental plans. Further, we find significant variation in the degree to which brewers believe there is opportunity to leverage sustainable brewing practices to charge consumers a higher price. We also provide insight on relationships between environmental practices and potential resources provided to breweries. These findings improve our understanding of craft brewers' tradeoffs regarding sustainable brewing practices that could apply more generally to other resource‐intensive sectors.

Craft beer – a systematic literature review and research agenda

“…Rosburg and Grebitus (2021), analyzing a set of breweries in Iowa (USA), concluded that about half of their sample made the annual assessment to evaluate operating procedures and opportunities to improve the environmental practices were identified. In turn, Corsini et al’s (2019) results showed a great need for environmental pro-activeness with CB producers joining forces for more sustainable production, investigating determinants of an environmental strategy.…”

“…Alfeo et al (2020) found that producers intend to give a strong local value added to their production through using small batches of local ingredients, aiming to analyze the cost-benefit relation of Sicilian micro-malting, reaching positive results. Rosburg and Grebitus (2021), analyzing a set of breweries in Iowa (USA), concluded that about half of their sample made the annual assessment to evaluate operating procedures and opportunities to improve the environmental practices were identified. In turn, Corsini et al's (2019) results showed a great need for environmental pro-activeness with CB producers joining forces for more sustainable production, investigating determinants of an environmental strategy.…”

Environmental Priorities, Drivers and Barriers in the Craft Beer Sector: Insights from Massachusetts Breweries

“…Lack of awareness and information about best practices and available state and federal incentives for reducing environmental impacts is a common barrier for craft breweries in any country [75,76]. Brewers guilds, the national Brewers Association, and state programs have been working to address this challenge by providing up-to-date information, technical assistance, and resources such as examples of best practices [15,[82][83][84]. Lack of technical capacity in identifying and carrying out complex energy efficiency or water efficiency projects, analyzing performance data, or evaluating alternatives, is another key barrier to adopting sustainable beer production practices [45].…”

“…In Massachusetts, the number of craft breweries increased from 34 in 2007 to over 230 in 2022 [13]. The industry is very committed to environmental and social responsibility, with many small entrepreneurial players focused on local sourcing, reducing energy, water, and chemical use, preventing waste, and promoting social justice and community well-being [14,15]. At the same time, beer manufacturing is water-and energyintensive, generating a significant amount of waste (both liquid and solid) and uses toxic chemicals for cleaning and sterilizing.…”

New experiences in the Italian craft beer market. Opportunities for development in the Piedmont Region

“…Craft breweries are independent, they have limited production volumes with higher differentiation capacity. They attract consumers who demand products more committed to sustainability issues and who are willing to pay higher prices for goods in line with their philosophy of life (Durán-Sánchez et al, 2022;Rosburg and Grebitus, 2021). According to data from the American Brewers Association there has been an increase in the number of microbreweries in Europe and United States (Murray and O'Neill, 2012), which had 3,000 microbreweries in 2014 (Matthews and Patton, 2016).…”