Beverage World - October 15, 2007 - (Page 28)

COVERSTORY Where Do We Apply? Aside from the satisfaction of walking to the beat of a different drummer and a chance to follow one’s folly in the workplace, New Belgium employees get some pretty nifty incentives to stick around and work their hardest. After one year, a staff member gets a Cruiser bike, whose image graces the label of Fat Tire Amber Ale, as well as an employee ownership stake (employees own a total of 32 percent of the company). After five years they get a trip to “old” Belgium, a trip that inspired husband-andwife founders Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan to follow their folly and start a brewery. After 10 years they get perhaps the ultimate symbol of the company’s commitment to the environment: a living, growing tree. —J.C. twice a month for the following year and get a chance to win a variety of bike-related prizes from quarterly drawings. New Belgium celebrates all things bike-related across 11 US cities during the Tour de Fat, which has evolved to become a series of events about, as Jordan explains, “celebrating bicycles, celebrating alternative transportation and the small footprint that each of us can make and lessen our impact by riding bikes. We all feel that’s the sweet spot for us with Tour de Fat.” At each stop the brewery seeks one committed soul to trade a car for a bike, challenging participants to give up their petroleum-fueled existence to one governed by pedal power. Those who take the plunge get a custom-fitted commuter bike and bike trailer. And believe it or not, the brewery usually manages to find someone to make the trade. “We want to do something that goes beyond just a splash of New Belgium,” says chief branding officer Greg Owsley. “We want to leave a ripple out there that says, ‘Wow, a company can do more, branding can do more’ than just convince, ‘That’s the only beer I’ll drink.’ If we could leave people with a little bit of ‘New Belgium encouraged me to approach life a wee bit more sustainably,’ if we can do that to the million or 2 million or 3 million people who drink our beer, then we’ve really won.” For those companies looking to make a similar impact, Jordan has this advice: Make sure your heart is in it. “Part of sustainable practice is hanging in there over the long haul,” she says. “And if people are less than committed to it, but it seems like ‘something we should do’ or because ‘somebody outside says we should do it,’ then it’s destined for less than significant change.” And, remember: “It’s a process,” she says. “The destination is not perfection, it’s continued improvement.” BW For more on New Belgium, including additional insights from CEO Kim Jordan, visit beverageworld.com. BEVERAGEWORLD.COM http://www.dakamericas.com http://www.dakamericas.com http://www.beverageworld.com/ http://www.beverageworld.com/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Beverage World - October 15, 2007

Beverage World - October 15, 2007 Table of Contents Global Recycling Trends Editor’s Note CCE’s Recycling Initiative New Beverages: VeeV New Beverage Roundup Market Metrics: Green-Minded Consumers Cover Story: Earth’s Brewer Adina World Beat Beverages • Fetzer Vineyards Kim Jeffery, Nestlé Waters North America Sambazon Icelandic Water Holdings John Compton, PepsiCo North America Dennis Puffer, Coors Brewing Co. ITO EN Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. • Cuca Fresca Exports Jeff Seabright, The Coca-Cola Company Mendocino Wine Co. Doug Muhleman, Anheuser-Busch Seth Goldman, Honest Tea Supply Chain: Waste Management Production: Environmental Operations Operations Observations Packaging: Lightweight Bottles Trendspotting R&D: Eco Beverages • Ask the Expert Sales & Marketing: Green POS Materials Distribution: Green Fleets Distribution: Fleet of the Month: Manhattan Beer Distributors FleetBeat The Beverage World Top 100 Classifieds Ad Index

Beverage World - October 15, 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.