Draught Beer Beats Bottled in Life Cycle Assessment
by Jenna Watson, Barcelona 
on 07.18.08
Here’s a job we all want – carrying out a life cycle assessment of beer. One would have to really do some serious investigation to get realistic statistics on the “use phase”. But seriously, the cover story on the March issue of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment is the LCA of an Italian Lager Beer (see the full article citation at the end of this post).
When comparing one litre of draught beer with one litre of bottled beer neither one comes out as the hands-down more environmentally-friendly choice. Both have comparable environmental impacts, which are not very significant. Draught beer, due to its “bulk” packaging has lower impacts with an estimated overall environmental load that was 68% lower than bottled beer.
They say that the results for beer production were not very worrying and were consistent with the “widely held opinion that breweries have to be considered among the less energy consuming and less polluting activities in the industrial sector.”(page 137). However, barley production was the area where the most impacts lie because of the large amounts of land area required.
Consideration of Pesticides:
They do not go into detail about pesticide use in this article (but that doesn't mean the study doesn't consider it), which I found rather interesting. But their results still show that the packaging and use phases have almost equal impacts on “ecosystem quality” as the agricultural phase. They do say that “barley cultivation was a very important process” (page 139) and that it should be given further investigation. I assume here they mean regarding pesticide use, although it is not explicitly stated.
The Biggest Impact:
The study reports that the some of the most important impacts come from what the LCA sector calls the “use” phase. That is how the beer is kept chilled, how it is served, how the drinker gets to the beer and how they get home. The biggest impact here was when they compared the assumption that people might drive up to 5km to go for a drink.
One of their main conclusions is that the further people drive to get the beer, the greater the impact it has. Their recommendation for the most effective way of reducing the impacts of beer is by promoting draught beer and reducing car use to get to your beer. Bottom line: try walking, riding your bike or taking the bus to reduce those life cycle impacts of your alcohol consumption.
Article citation: Cordella M, Tugnoli A, Spadoni G, Santarelli F, Zangrando T (2008) LCA of an Italian Lager Beer. Int J LCA 13 (2) 133-139.
Image Credit: Bambu Productions/Getty Images
More on Life Cycle Assessment:
Paper Bags or Plastic Bags: Everything You Need to Know.
Life Cycle Analysis of Tap Water vs Bottled Water.
The Time of My Life Cycle.
Greener Dryer Better: LCA of Hand Dryers vs. Paper Towels.
More on Beer:
How Green is Your Beer.
Green Man: New Zealand’s Organic, Vegan Beer
CO2 labelling on my beer can?
Cascade Green: 100% Carbon Offset Beer
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by Half in Three Steps
- Eat a Vegetarian Diet, Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by a Ton
- Mister Miyagi's Guide to Going Green: 5 Questions to Always Ask to Think Green and Be Green
- Don't be Like Gov. Mark Sanford—Travel Local
- Improve Air Conditioner Efficiency with 9 Cool Tips
- Shocking Report Reveals Marine Litter Madness (Plus 10 Easy Ways to Help Save Our Oceans!)
For anyone that has brewed and bought beer, this should be completely obvious. Bottles are fragile, difficult, and time intensive. Kegs are strudy, easy to use, clean, and fill.
Now if we could get rid of silly laws some places have banning kegs...
That settles it. I'm getting a Kegerator! Saving the earth, one pint at a time.
It is not wise to drink and drive anyhow, so walk to the pub, and crawl back home.
i knew it! so my campaign to get all my friends to drink draft beer this summer isnt in vain after all!
Best option: Get a growler. Then you don't spend your free time in the pub, and don't need to find a place to store a keg.
Finally! This is the ammo I needed to get a tap at home. My favorite beer is brewed a couple miles away!!!