Stroud Brewery’s pioneering approach to combining brewing and sustainability received national recognition on Wednesday evening at the ‘Oscars for the beer industry’. Founder and MD, Greg Pilley and a small delegation from the brewery, accepted the Sustainability Award at the BeerX Festival and are over the moon with this accolade.
The award is part of the Business Awards presented by SIBA – the Society for Independent Brewers and Associates, the national body which is the big voice of independent beer. As well promoting independent brewing and lobbying government on behalf of brewers, SIBA organises the UK’s biggest annual beer & brewing trade event, BeerX UK, in Liverpool, runs regional and national independent beer awards for cask, keg, bottled and canned beers, and hosts regional meetings enabling members to share knowledge and keep-up-to-date.
The SIBA Business Awards look to congratulate excellence in the brewing industry, highlighting the UK’s very best brewing businesses, pubs and retailers of independent beer – awards known as the Oscars of the independent beer industry. Recognition is given across a variety of categories such as best taproom, activities to support local community, business innovation, ensuring diversity and inclusion, best web shop and outstanding commercial achievement.
When Greg set up the brewery over 18 years ago, sustainability wasn’t heard of in the brewing sector and, to be honest, was probably thought of as a bit weird. But that didn’t dissuade Greg.
“I’ve got a background in wildlife conservation and spent 5 years studying the role of locally-brewed alcoholic drinks in African communities. This experience meant that, from the early days, the brewery’s role within the local community, its ethics and its impact on the environment mattered to me.” said Greg.
The brewery is now an inspiring business model for how the corporate world can future-proof itself: successfully combining its commercial activities with responsibility towards people and the planet.
“I think the judges were impressed by the wealth of sustainability features we’ve incorporated into our day-to-day operations, our holistic approach and the whole ethos of the business” said Greg about the award.
“We looked at all aspects of our operations and tried to find better, more efficient ways of doing them. We use organic ingredients to brew our beer and in the food we serve which not only helps wildlife but supports British farmers, our spent malt gets recycled locally as cattle feed, we’ve put bat roosting and bird nesting boxes under the eaves of the building, 70% of our suppliers are within a 50 mile radius and we’ve been given the title of Plastic-free Champions by the environmental charity, Surfers Against Sewage, for how we’re trying to reduce single-use plastic. There are plenty of other things, too, which are catalogued in our Impact Report kept on our website.”
Greg continued: “And we try to think of imaginative, more fun ways: we give our beer slops to the local volunteer group, Wild Stroud, to help gardeners protect their plants with organic slug traps, we make one of our beers with nettles and we even flush toilets in the taproom with rainwater harvested from the roof of our building! I want people to know that sustainability can be fun and a win-win for everyone.”
