2010 Friends of Glass • Boulevard Brewing Company
Company
Boulevard Brewing Company
Website
Contact Information
Julie Weeks
Marketing Communications Manager
816.701.7220
jweeks@boulevard.com
About Boulevard Brewing Company
Boulevard Brewing Company has grown to be the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest, dedicated to the craft of producing fresh, flavorful beers using traditional ingredients and the best of both old and new brewing techniques. Boulevard’s portfolio of year-round and seasonal beers are available in 12 Midwestern states, with selected offerings distributed in an additional seven states. You can learn more about the brewery at boulevard.com.
Glass Container Recycling/Sustainability Achievements
As one of the largest glass consumers in the Kansas City area, Boulevard Brewing Company recognizes the positive benefits of glass—it preserves the quality and taste of the beer, contributes to the premium image of Boulevard’s products, and is sustainable. Last year alone, Kansas Citians threw away 150 million pounds of perfectly good glass. To the dismay of everyone at the brewery, this figure included some 10 million empty Boulevard bottles; meanwhile, Kansas City businesses were bringing in nearly 100 million pounds of recycled glass from hundreds of miles away because there was no nearby facility to process glass. With the support of local companies and community organizations, the brewery took action and formed Ripple Glass, a processing plant dedicated to recycling glass containers. So far this year, more than 6,400 tons of glass in the Greater Kansas City Area have been processed at Ripple and used primarily by Owens Corning to produce fiberglass insulation, saving enormous amounts of energy and dramatically lowering emissions while producing a product that saves still more energy.
Other Recycling/Sustainability Achievements
Boulevard Brewing Co. has a profound sense of responsibility for protecting the environment and developing sustainable business practices. Our facility features a green roof, which reduces heating and air conditioning loads while also absorbing rainwater, which reduces runoff while sustaining a variety of plant life. The plants, in turn, minimize the overall thermal footprint of the building, absorb CO2 and produce oxygen.
Boulevard’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC) provides heating and cooling adjustments throughout our mixed-use building. Boulevard’s large windows, enormous roof monitors, and light wells allow our primary facility building to utilize natural light.
The brewery generates non-toxic wastewater during the brewing, fermentation and packaging of beer, which is treated on-site to control its strength and pH, complying with city requirements.
Boulevard’s closed boxes are made of 70% post-consumer recycled paper and our case trays contain 100% post-consumer material. Both are 100% recyclable. Boulevard Pilsner 6-pack carriers also use 100% recycled paperboard content.
Our employees actively participate in an at-work recycling program where aluminum, paper, cardboard and other materials are collected daily and delivered to local recycling centers for processing. Our sales team all drive hybrid vehicles to reduce emissions and create fewer trips to the pump.
Future Plans
Boulevard employees formed a Brewery Resource Efficiency Workgroup (BREW), which is a team of personnel focused on improving efficiency of resources—material, utility and human—in the brewery and related operations.
One of the biggest tasks currently underway is converting 2501 Southwest Boulevard to a zero-landfill facility. We have already determined companies who can use every type of waste produced here at the brewery including a paper business for paper and cardboard, an organic recycling organization for all food waste and a cement company for non-reusable materials to actually make cement.
In addition, we are actively investigating methods of collection, treatment and reuse of the wastewater to reduce the load on our water utility’s infrastructure.
related items
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GPI 2011 Friends of Glass • Glass Act
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Use our Carbon Calculator to find out how much energy you can save by recycling your glass containers.
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About the institute
The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) is the trade association representing the North American glass container industry. Through GPI, glass container manufacturers speak with one voice to advocate industry standards, promote sound environmental policies and educate packaging professionals. GPI member companies manufacture glass containers for food, beverage, cosmetic and many other products. GPI also has associate members that represent a broad range of suppliers and closure manufacturers.
