Sustainability

Darling Brew, a craft brewery based in the town of Darling in the Western Cape, has been officially declared as Africa’s first carbon neutral brewery! Our sustainability journey starts with our passion for the conservation of our environment and the beautiful animals we have encountered. 

The Brewery is expected to offset a total of 687.96 tons of CO2 over the next year. This will be equivalent to having eliminated the same amount of carbon from the environment as 17 829 tree seedlings having grown for 10 years. To become Africa’s first carbon neutral brewery, Darling Brew has calculated their carbon footprint by means of a greenhouse gas audit.

The carbon footprint is offset through impactChoice, a provider of end-to-end environmental sustainability solutions, who also ensure the emissions are offset via responsible carbon capturing and reduction projects. In 2016, Darling Brew released Africa’s first carbon neutral beer, Blood Serpent, with the intention of later extending it across the range. Blood Serpent was seen as a catalyst within the African beer industry, especially towards decarbonisation and company buy-in for carbon neutrality. The beer was celebrated for being an innovation, not only within the craft beer industry, but towards sustainability in Africa.

In order to simplify how much impact humans have on the environment, environmentalists have equated all impacts to one measurable yardstick: carbon emissions.

Carbon emissions refer to the amount of greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere as a result of human activity, such as burning of fossil fuels. This is measured in metric tons of CO2. ImpactChoices’ technology provides a unique solution that enables Darling Brew to apportion these emissions through their brewing process and then mitigate these through the purchase of certified Carbon Credits resulting in a carbon neutral brewery and line of beers.

In order to ensure that the brewery is reducing its impact, Darling Brew have teamed up with sustainability consultants Ecolution Consulting who, in addition to guiding the brewery through the carbon offsetting process, are working with Darling Brew to reduce the water and energy consumption, as well as the brewery’s waste to landfill percentage.

“We are identifying short and long-term strategies to ensure that Darling Brew continues to travel further along their sustainability journey,” says André Harms, sustainability engineer and founder of Ecolution Consulting. “This started with the procedure of tracking and recording consumption and waste data to ensure that real progress is being made.”

The financial benefits of these Carbon Credit purchases are received by The Kariba REDD+ project in Northern Zimbabwe, which works with communities to rehabilitate forests and through sustainable farming practices whilst ensuring gender parity and social upliftment. REDD+ is an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the carbon offsets carbon offsets are validated by the Verified Carbon Standard, the Gold Standard and the Plan Vivo. It is with this in mind that we have committed ourselves to the ongoing journey of achieving a more sustainable brewery and brewing process. To create awareness around animal conservation and the preservation of their (and our) habitat; and to engage with our local community.