Western Cape-based craft brewery Darling Brew has been named Africa’s first carbon-neutral brewery and is expected to offset a total of 687.96 t of carbon dioxide over the next year.

This, the brewery explained, will be equivalent to having eliminated the same amount of carbon from the environment as 17 829 tree seedlings having grown for ten years.

To become Africa’s first carbon neutral brewery, Darling Brew has calculated its carbon footprint by means of a greenhouse-gas audit.

This carbon footprint is then offset through environment sustainability solutions provider Impact Choice, which ensures the emissions are offset through responsible carbon capture and reduction projects.

In 2016, Darling Brew released the carbon neutral beer, Blood Serpent, with the intention of later extending its carbon neutrality across its product 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, the company noted, was celebrated for being an innovation, not only within the craft beer industry, but towards sustainability in Africa.

“It’s not about doing what we like with our operations and just offsetting our impact, but it’s about our commitment to continuously reducing our carbon footprint as much as possible while using the offsetting process as a way of further redressing our impact,” says Darling Brew owner and founder Kevin Wood.

To ensure the brewery is reducing its impact, Darling Brew has teamed up with sustainability consultants Ecolution Consulting which, in addition to guiding the brewery through the carbon offsetting process, is working with Darling Brew to reduce its 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,” Ecolution Consulting founder and sustainability engineer André Harms noted.

This, he added, started with the procedure of tracking and recording consumption and waste data to ensure that real progress is being made.

Darling Brew has also implemented a series of green initiatives in the brewery that includes water efficient fittings, waterless urinals, ongoing recycling and food waste management and the use of upcycled furniture and recycled wood in the brewery and taste room area.

“We are excited to progress on this journey, as going carbon neutral is a massive step for us, but certainly not the last,” said Wood.

In addition, the brewery has recently taken to openly and prominently displaying the month to month statistics of its water, waste, energy and carbon use in the hopes of including Darling Brew’s patrons in the journey and spreading awareness.