Bodriggy Brewing have joined the small number of breweries in Australia to become climate neutral, after gaining certification from the Climate Active program. It makes the Abbotsford-based brewery the first independent brewery in Victoria to gain that accreditation from the federal government program, an achievement that comes two years after Capital Brewing received the same accreditation close to two years ago.
To reach this point, the team at Bodriggy spent more than two years working with the carbon and energy management team at Pangolin Associates to audit their emissions while offsetting any emissions they were unable to cut.
Bodriggy co-founder Pete Walsh (pictured above left with others from the brewery team) says this was sparked by a point of self-reflection for the brewery when they reached the half-decade mark.
“We were just coming into the next phase of our existence,” he says. “So we had a chat about what we wanted to do for the next couple of years and what was important.”
As they’ve grown, Pete says they wanted to make sure they were connecting properly with their core audience as well as their own staff.
“We’ve gone from brewing 30,000 litres of beer in a year to doing that in a week,” he says. “We needed a bit of a realignment, and making the environment healthier is obviously a nice thing to do, but it was also about being relevant to our area in Abbotsford.
“It’s really important to a lot of our stuff and to a lot of our punters too.”
Like Capital Brewing – with whom they’re good mates – Bodriggy went through the accreditation process with Pangolin Associates, who measure a business’ footprint, help them cut emissions, and find offsets for those they can’t remove.
“It’s really interesting, they give you a full breakdown of where you’re bleeding,” Pete says.
Using 2022 as a baseline, they’re looking to cut their total emissions by 30 percent by 2030. To achieve that involves an in-depth plan including the installation of more solar panels as well as energy and waste-saving measures. A significant cut to their water usage, for example, is coming from Clean In Place (CIP) kit that will significantly reduce both their hot water consumption and their use of chemicals.
“We hope to halve our waste water off the back of that,” Pete says. “Then it’s the one-percenters, like refining your rubbish streams.
“Believe it or not, ten percent of our emissions come from serving meat – that probably accounts for less than one percent of the revenue. We probably serve an average amount of meat, but I wouldn’t have thought it would count to ten percent, so it’s about figuring out ways to plug that hole a little bit.”
While there are aspects of the business that will continue to produce emissions, Pete says they view it as a journey on which they're taking their staff and the first step is about understanding where their impact is and what they can change.
“It’s about explaining it to staff as much as anyone," he says. "It’s not like tomorrow we’ll have 100 extra solar panels and everyone has to walk to work – there has to be a manageable process.”
To celebrate carbon neutral accreditation, Bodriggy have partnered with Lekker Electrike bikes and are giving Bodriggy customers the chance to win a Jordaan Urban Lekker as well as a range of Bodriggy goodies. Details can be found here.
The picture at the top of the article features, from left to right, Pete Walsh, Greg Scott, Anthony Daniels, Jon Costello and Jessica Morris
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
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Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
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Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
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Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
