Make that a zero carbon ale

Beer drinkers can now save the planet with New Zealand’s first carbon-neutral brew.

Christchurch-based craft brewery The Fermentist is the first in the country to receive an Enviro-Mark Solutions carboNZero certification for its Kiwi Pale Ale (KPA).

And it’s aiming for the title of New Zealand’s first carbon neutral brewery next year.

The Fermentist general manager Simon Taylor said its Kiwi Pale Ale (KPA) was the brewery’s biggest selling beer.

It’s been on the market since the brewery opened 15 months ago after its owner, Lion, wanted to replace its iconic red brewery when it was destroyed in the earthquakes.

Now, after an intensive process, the beer can be labelled zero carbon.

Taylor said rebuilding the business from scratch meant it could incorporate sustainability into the design of the brewery as it was being built.

‘‘We started looking at waste reduction programmes, our design of the place, and installed things like solar panels, solar hot water, from the get-go,’’ he said.

The brewery also uses local The Fermentist’s general manager, Simon Taylor, says becoming carbon neutral is a big commitment but worthwhile.

producers, composts its organic waste from the brewing process rather than sending it to landfill and doesn’t use natural gas or LPG on site, with everything powered by electricity or solar.

All of the emissions from the life cycle of the brew have been taken into account – from the fertiliser that goes into growing the grain to the refrigeration of the product in the consumer’s home.

As a result, carbon emissions have been reduced, though not entirely diminished – every litre of KPA beer produces 752 grams of carbon dioxide. This carbon footprint is offset by taking the same amount back out of the atmosphere through carbon credits purchased from the South Island’s Hinewai Reserve in the Banks Peninsula.

‘‘By embedding all those sustainability practices in the front end, we know we’re lower than what could be considered an industry average,’’ he said.

‘‘I guess people look at offsets and kind of go, ‘Well, isn’t that green washing’, but it’s not at all. I think where we’re buying our credits from at the Hinewai Reserve on the Banks Peninsula, which is a forest regeneration project, that helps organisations like that who absorb CO2, and helps us neutralise our carbon emissions.

‘‘And the local connection is fantastic, the people here in Christchurch identify with the Banks Peninsula and know about Hinewai so watching that grow and develop and seeing all that biodiversity return to the peninsula is really neat.’’

Many businesses and breweries were starting to think about sustainability, he said.

‘‘This is not a marketing exercise, this is something that all businesses need to be looking at.’’

It wasn’t an easy process. Getting the Enviro-Mark Solutions carboNZero certification was an intensive assessment that began in November last year and included a technical review and audit of the brewery’s systems.

‘‘It’s easy to say you’re sustainable but how can you actually prove it? I think carbon zero, carbon neutral is a really meaningful measure and it’s probably the one measure that resonates with everyone, so we thought we’d go down that route. That’s why we went with one product to start with, because we wanted to prove that we could do it.’’