New Belgium Brewing

Our story

New Belgium Brewing uses 10 Core Values & Beliefs to guide us as a business. Two of those CVBs keep us focused on sustainability:

1. Kindling social, environmental and cultural change as a business role model.
2. Environmental stewardship: Honoring nature at every turn of the business.

After supporting wind power and installing biogas electricity at our brewery, we turned to solar. Our first installation in 2010 had a 25 year payback. From a strict business perspective, we would almost never make a decision like this. However, it was part of a larger collaboration partially funded by the US Department of Energy. This project, named FortZED, set out to prove the viability of smart grid technologies, solar, and various other renewable energy sources at the community level (we also increased our biogas capture). At the time we installed the solar panels, ours was the largest privately owned solar array in Colorado and generated enough electricity at peak sunlight to power our packaging line. Our hope was that demonstration projects like ours would encourage more Utility companies to offer incentives and accelerate solar’s journey toward a market-viable cost. Less than a decade later, we’re proud to see these goals realized across Colorado and beyond. Today, other solar installs far exceed the size of ours, and that was the ultimate goal all along. The bonus? Our innovative successes in the Fort ZED project landed a 6-pack of Fat Tire Amber Ale in the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for Invention & Innovation.