Beer, the worlds third most popular drink. It’s a beverage that has a rich history too, spanning over 5000 years. And during the many millenniums beer has evolved into many forms; stouts, pale ales, belgians, sours, wheats, browns, porters, ambers, bocks, pale lagers, dark lagers… just to name a few.

With time brewing technologies may have developed one thing hasn’t changed much thats the 4 ingredients that make up beers; grains, hops, yeast and water.

And the brewing operation is relatively simple in its most basic form. Grains are first milled, water is added and the mixture is then heated in a mash tun, breaking down starches into sugars. After which the sweet liquor is extracted, and the beer like concoction is then boiled, then the hops are added. The mix is close to being beer, but needs to be cooled ready for fermentation, and this is where yeast is added. Finally, the brew can be matured, and after all that it can either be filtered or carbonated.

The upside, beer is the final product! The down side?

Unfortunately there are a few downsides to beer production. Water use and energy consumption are some of the larger issues that pose problems for future beer production.

Firstly, brewing beer uses a lot of the water. Large amounts of wet stuff are used not only for the production of beer, as beer is 90 – 95% water, but the cleaning and sterilising of equipment after each batch uses even more. For a little perspective, it can take  up to 7 litres of water to make 1 litre of beer!

Secondly, the brewing operation is very energy intensive, even a well run brewery can use anywhere between 8 and 12 kWh’s for each 100 litres of beer produced. That means every litre of beer has the equivalent energy use of running a 5W LED for about 3 days!

The above outlines some of the sustainability challenges that the brewing industry faces. However, the truth is, things are changing; from the biggest multinational breweries to the smallest craft beer producers, there are a plethora of sustainability schemes and initiatives already existing within the beer industry as a whole.

So, you’re buying your next beer, what can you do to make it more sustainable? The following will help ensure your next pint is low impact.

1. You might want to consider craft beers: Craft beer production for many years has had strong links with sustainability. From reducing waste water and energy consumption to cutting solid waste and harmful emissions. Craft beer producers have been on a sustainability mission without compromising the quality of beer.
2. Learn what the larger breweries are up to! In the past years, pressure on large multinational companies to clean up their act has meant the larger more mainstream breweries have been willing to invest heavily in carbon reduction and clean energy.An example big beer investing in sustainability is the Göss Brewery in Austria, one of Europe’s largest breweries. Operations are now fully carbon-neutral! The energy supply for the brewery is 100% renewable energy achieved by hydropower, and a massive solar array of 1500m² as well as energy from the newly built beer grain fermentation plant. Nearly 40% of the brewery’s heat requirement comes from waste heat discharged from the neighbouring sawmill. The brewery is an exemplar for other large producers.

So its not all doom and gloom if your looking to reduce the impact of your next six pack.

It’s all good-and-well knowing that beer producers are making an effort to make their product more sustainable. However, more often than not you’ll never know if your favourite pint is or isn’t sustainable! Now, some beers might have some information on their labels, but its not very common. In addition, if you’re having a beer at your local bar or pub you’ll have no clue if that ale you’re sipping has a minimal environmental impact.

Luckily, finding out if your favourite larger is low carbon is simple. If breweries  do subscribe to sustainability initiatives they’ll make this information available. In just a few clicks I found out what one of the largest breweries in the world is doing to reduce its impact on the environment. And on the flip side, I now know my local craft beer producer supports community events and sources its ingredients locally.

So whether your getting a six pack in the super market or a pint down the pub, making an informed choice of which beer to drink can go a long way to making your lifestyle more sustainable.

For more on a better beer, check out my video “A Better Beer.”:

If you’ve been out at night lately you may have noticed a silent yet bright revolution occurring. The revolt is happening in the form of tiny arrays of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), and they’re replacing inefficient incandescent lightbulbs in your home, changing the sodium glow of  street lighting, and transforming modern architecture. LEDs are truly providing sustainable lighting solutions.

First discovered over 100 years ago, LEDs create light by electroluminescence in a semiconductor material. Though the low energy LEDs as we know them today have been around for over 50 years, in which time they have become brighter, more colourful and whole lot cheaper.

But what is so great about LEDs compared to traditional bulbs and even low energy CFL bulbs?

Well, lighting a house is uses a considerable amount of energy, up to 18% of your energy bill, so finding solutions to reduce that energy requirement is a no brainer. And thats where LED lighting can come to the rescue.

LEDs don’t just stop at efficiency either. They achieve full brightness instantly, unlike other energy saving bulbs, and they’re are dimmable. LEDs also come in vast variety of of colours and hues. So, think less clinical lab lighting and more homely glow.

Perhaps what is most staggering about LEDs is their amazing longevity. Light Emitting Diodes last a very very very long time, they can run 10 hours a day for 13 years! That means the average LED bulb lasting 50,000 hours, which is an astonishing 49,250 hours more than an incandescent light, and 48,000 more hours than a halogen bulb!

However, LEDs do have a darker side. A 2010 study found LEDs contain lead and arsenic amongst other potentially dangerous substances.  That is not to say they are dangerous, but its when they break that could cause problems. Researchers advise you treat broken LEDs as hazardous waste, using a mask and gloves to dispose of them properly.

It’s true that for many years LED light bulbs were incredibly expensive, and somewhat dim in comparison to their incandescent cousins. However, technological developments in LEDs now mean that they will perform better than incandescent lighting and even CFL light bulbs. Although more expensive, a LEDs extremely low energy consumption means that they will quickly pay of themselves over their long lifetime, saving £70 or $90 over the lifetime of the bulb.

Choosing LED light bulbs, like any sustainable decision, means we have to be able to see further than the present, and base our decisions on possible future outcomes. Whilst in the short term it might benefit your wallet to buy cheaper non efficient light bulbs, but it doesn’t take long for LEDs to pay for themselves, and save you a heap of energy and money far into the future.

LED resources

If you’re like me coffee is much more than just a drink, it’s a  daily ritual. However, just getting my caffeine fix at home can have adverse environmental and social consequences. So I thought I’d explore some great ways in which our daily coffee habits can be more sustainable without compromising its rich flavour.

Coffee’s popularity is truly global, with around two billion cups being enjoyed everyday. This means there is an awful large demand for the hot stuff, and making a sustainable decisions might not be as clear cut as it may first seem.

Firstly, where you get, and what type of coffee you get can make a huge impact.  When shopping for manufactures make it easy to make sustainable choices; many packs of the brown stuff have an eco or ethical certification on the side of the pack. Essentially, this gives the consumer the ability to choose what sort of sustainable coffee they want to buy.  A great starting point for purchasing eco/ethical labelled coffee is Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance.

As well as buying coffee with an eco/ethical label, there is a choice of how much coffee you might want to buy. My method is to buy in bulk! Why? The bigger the bag the less need there’ll be to drive back to the store to fill the cupboard, and an added bonus of going large is bigger packs reduce the amount of packaging being produced.

Buying your favourite blend is the easy part, now you got to brew it. Most methods of making coffee are inevitably going to need energy to heat the water. If you’ve opted for instant, pour over or french press, these methods will generally use less energy than electric coffee makers and machines.

A problem facing many of us when making hot drinks is over estimating the amount of resources necessary to make our favourite beverage.  Therefore, measuring accurately the amount of coffee and water will not only save water, energy, money, but make a better tasting cup of Joe.

Having enjoyed your morning brew, that isn’t the end of the road for your favourite roast. Composting your coffee grounds its ace for the earth in your garden. Coffee grounds make a particularly good compost, as they are pretty much pH neutral and give the soil an amazing structure. But, if you’re like me and living in a tiny little apartment surrounded in concrete, get social and donate your grounds to a neighbour, gardening group or nursery  – gardeners will thank you for it, plus its a huge waste to see them end up in a landfill.

The global popularity of coffee and the subsequent demand for the fantastic little bean has had a huge impact on the production, transforming the industry from traditional, small production methods to more intense monoculture models that require massive amounts of fertiliser and pesticides. In some cases these production methods have decreased biodiversity, fragmented habitat, generated industrial levels of waste, depleted soil and created social inequality within coffee producing areas.

The good news? Without much effort, the way we buy, brew and compost our favourite picker upper can help transform not only the way the coffee industry operates, but reduce the impact that coffee has within our homes using less energy, water, packaging and products. The result… a better tasting cup of homemade coffee, that benefits your back pocket and the planet.

Resources for No average cup of Joe

Sometimes trying to be sustainable isn’t easy, other times it is, that is why I pee in the shower everyday. So why would I go and urinate in one of the cleanest places in the house? Its simple, for me its all about conserving water.

Answering natures call in whilst lathered up doesn’t just leave you with a clean conscious and scrubbed body. Taking a whizz whilst in the shower can save you time and effort cleaning the toilet, and reduce the amount of water used for flushing in turn reducing a costly water bill.

Although taking a pee in that shower will save some water, it isn’t a silver bullet for our water conservation needs. After all, water is still being used and ends up going down the drain. That said, the amount of water used will be much less than an average flush (if you pee for approx 21 seconds), so there will be a saving by taking a tinkle in the shower.

It may seem trivial reducing the amount of water by missing a flush or two seems a day, but little changes in our water use go some way to reducing the overall water consumption in our lifestyles. Its important to save water, as excessive water consumption can have negative effects on the environment as water is not a limitless resource.

So the next time you’re bursting to go for a number 1 in the shower, just go. There is no shame, nobody has to find out (unless you brag about it). More importantly, peeing in the shower is a small step towards a more sustainable modern life.

Resources Peeing in the shower.