Carbon-negative from farm to glass... and beyond
We’re at the start of our carbon-negative journey, and what a place to kick it off! Two carbon-negative brews fully tracked through their life cycle, all done without offsets.
Swell and Trail are the culmination of countless years of work, researching and trialling suppliers and processes to help bring the footprint of our beer down. Swell and Trail finish with a CO2e footprint of -30g and -40g per pint respectively, compared to standard pints which are more than 350g per pint. All of this guaranteed all the way from the farm to your pint glass and beyond.
Regenerative farming
Wildfarmed through and through. The base barley for our carbon-negative beers are grown by the incredible growers over at Wildfarmed, sequestering more CO2 than it produces. A harmony of new meets old in bio-diverse, poly cropped, regenerative farming techniques – keeping the lovely soil between our toes healthy and our pints nice and tasty.
Founded in 2018 by Andy Cato, George Lamb and Edd Lees, Wildfarmed makes food the right way with flour that tastes fantastic and is better for you and the planet. Wildfarmed is now made up of 50+ farmers across the country from Northumberland to Cornwall. Wildfarmed work directly with the farmers, helping them to grow wheat in a regenerative system that prioritises plant diversity, returns health to the land and pays people fairly.
Recapture and reuse
Our carbon-negative beers are brewed with almost entirely recaptured and reused hops!
Let us set the scene, hops are mainly used for two things… bittering and aroma – all depending on variety and when they are added during the brew. Now, most of the time once the hops have been used they get thrown away – and honestly, it’s like juicing an orange and tossing it away with half the juice left.
We’ve invested and developed in-house processes that means we can recapture the waste hops, get that last little bit of juice out of them and reduce the footprint of waste materials in the brewhouse.
Carbon Accounting
There’s a lot of shady green claims out there, so at the heart of the journey to reduce our footprint, we’ve worked with the incredible team at Zevero – where accurate data and transparency are king! Meaning Swell, our lager and Trail, our pale have their full footprint tracked from the cradle to the grave, ensuring they are carbon-negative.
Zevero makes it simple for companies to accurately measure, report and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions across their operations and supply chain. Zevero brings together climate data and expertise from suppliers to end consumers to enable companies to reduce their impact and engage with their customers.
Founded in 2021 and based in London, Zevero works with industry leaders and challenger brands around the world.
Looking at the future
We’ll cut straight to the point. The road to being a carbon-negative brewery is easy – we can pay to offset everything we do. But let’s be honest, that’s the easy road and we want to make more meaningful change.
Our goal is to eventually become carbon neutral, through as much insetting as possible. We will begin introducing our Wildfarmed barley to our other core beers, whilst investing in more equipment to reduce our impact.
Watch this space for more updates on our journey.