Zugunruhe: Helping great people get [good] things done: Zoog.un.roo.ee

Green Beer

If you think green beer is only for St. Patrick’s Day, think again. This green is about sustainability—taking care of the environment while producing a superb product. And that’s what Block 15, Corvallis’ new and only(!) independent brew pub is all about.

Months ago, I saw signs of activity in the old Gazette Times building in Corvallis. The site had been empty for a couple of years when the bar/restaurant in that space closed down. A notice went out announcing that Block 15 was renovating the space. Wisely, Nick and Kristen Arzner put their brewing equipment on display early on—so much so, that I’ve been haunting the windows checking out their progress on their whiteboard every time I visited the Red Horse Café right around the corner. An impressive list of craft beers has been growing since January or so.

At last, Block 15 opened its doors a few weeks ago and I sat down for a five-glass (little glasses, I swear!) sampler. In the words of the immortal Homer Simpson, “Mmmmmm, beeeeer.” But the fun didn’t stop there. Turns out that Block 15 is founded on a strong ethic of environmental responsibility. I had to know more and this week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with co-owner Nick Arzner to get the full story. Here’s what a I learned.

Nick and Kristen met at Indiana University and discovered that they had a lot in common. Not only a love of good beer, but a love for entrepreneurship and the planet. When they moved to Corvallis, and saw that there was no brew pub here, the wheels started turning. It’s taken five years but these two (both still in their mid-20’s!) have realized their dream of opening their own business. They hired Steve Van Rossem as their brewmaster and got to work.

Turns out, making beer is a very water hungry process. Not only that, but there’s lots of by-products: all the grains and hops that create the yummy flavors are discarded. Creating a bunch of waste water and refuse didn’t sit well with Nick. He got to thinking about how they could reduce their water usage and be creative with what happened to the plant materials. That good thinking lead to a set of creative solutions.

To reduce their water use, Block 15 recaptures the water used to cool their brewing tanks. That recaptured water (which has just been running through pipes) is saved and used for brewing or cleaning up. By putting in a heat exchanger, they reduced their water use even more. Nick didn’t tell me this, but I noticed that the servers seem to only bring water to the tables when customers ask for it. Another way to conserve, no doubt.

What I learned about how beer is brewed, from start to finish, would be a long post in itself (and if you want to know, tell me and I’ll post it). For the environment, though, the bottom line is that Block 15 focuses on local ingredients as often as possible. When barley and hops have done their jobs, they go to local farmers to feed cattle (the barley) or compost (the hops). All the veggie scraps that the restaurant produces are part of an innovative composting test program run by Allied Waste. In short, everything that can be reduced, reused, and recycled is. The restaurant is a no Styrofoam zone, too, with all the to-go containers made of compostable paper.

But that’s not all.

Block 15 is reducing their carbon outputs to help fight global climate change, too. They buy wind energy from Pacific Power’s Blue Sky program and they purchase carbon offsets from Northwest Natural (the gas company). They use compact fluorescent bulbs wherever possible to further reduce their energy use.

Why all this work to protect the environment? Nick says it just part of who he and Kristen are. Their business ethics spring directly from their personal values and beliefs. And when you talk to Nick, you’ll see his dedication, love of learning, and joy at producing great beer. The restaurant caters to a broad demographic from college students to families to anyone who enjoys a quiet spot to relax and chat with friends over a good brew.

Nick told me that he’d put the information about their efforts toward sustainability on the website as only an afterthought. He’d never even considered that being environmentally responsible could be a strong marketing aspect. Now, however, he’s getting the picture: consumers really do care and Block 15’s commitment to sustainability is winning them even more friends than their beer might do alone.

And the name? Turns out that the spot occupied by the restaurant (300 SW Jefferson) was once the 15th block of Marysville, which was what Corvallis was called back in 1851 (check out the plat here and look for the intersection of Jefferson and 3rd).

I know one thing: Nick and Kristen are off to a great start. May they be blessed with lots of green!

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This post is the first in a series profiling socially and environmentally responsible businesses in the Willamette Valley. Know someone who might like to be included? Nominate them here.

Corporate Social Responsibility: not just for big business anymore!

When you hear about corporate social responsibility (or CSR), you may think about big corporations giving away big bucks to big charities. But think again. CSR isn’t just for big businesses. Small businesses can make big impacts, too!

The idea behind social responsibility, whether corporate, government, or individual, is putting an emphasis on considering the greater good. In essence, it’s the idea that by considering the consequences of your actions, you can take responsibility for the impacts you have in the world around you. That means the impacts you have on your community, your personnel, your customers, the environment, and so on.

CSR is not just a good idea. It’s also good business. Businesses that are more socially and environmentally responsible attract better and more loyal employees. They often realize a savings in energy costs and materials.

Not only that but socially responsible businesses reap other benefits as well*:

• Over 25% of American consumers surveyed were willing to pay up to 20% more for “green” products.
• Sixty-six percent of people polled say that “doing good and doing well” is a good strategy for businesses.
• One of the strongest ways to build the value of your brand is through CSR.

It’s vitally important to remember that CSR is more than philanthropy. It’s a way of doing business that includes conserving resources (using less, recycling, reusing), reducing outputs (like garbage, carbon emissions, and toxic chemicals), as well as treating people fairly.

To see what this looks like in practice, take a look at Zugunruhe’s Low Carb Diet. Not carbohydrates, but carbon outputs. Zugunruhe balanced outputs with credits earlier this year as part of our commitment to renewable energy and fighting global climate change.

Once you’ve made the commitment to social and/or environmental responsibility, tell people about it. You can, and should make CSR part of your marketing strategy. Zugunruhe offers a dynamite coaching program that can help your business with green and socially responsible marketing, check it out here.

(*Source: Green Marketing Conference 2007)

Zugunruhe's Low Carb Diet

A few weeks ago, I picked up a very interesting article in Inc. I learned that Enterprise Rent-a-Car is partnering with Terrapass to allow folks who rent their cars the opportunity to offset any carbon emissions they create by driving their rental cars. I surfed over to Terrpass’ website and learned, to my great surprise, purchasing carbon credits is cheap and easy. Easier than I ever imagined.

I’m not sure why I thought that carbon offsets were complicated, but for some reason, I had this idea that offsetting carbon outputs were for big corporations. But that’s simply not true. Anyone can purchase carbon offsets to fight global climate change and promote clean, renewable energy at the same time. Here’s how it works.

For my business, I decided I wanted to go completely carbon neutral. That means offsetting all the emissions associated with running my business: electricity, travel, the whole shebang. So the first thing I did was go to Terrapass.com and click on the Business link and initiated a conversation with Mira, Terrapass’ Manager of Sales and Business Development. 
It turns out that there are several areas of business activities which create carbon outputs:

• On-site energy use. The amount of carbon emitted varies with the sorts of power plants used in your region. If you’re on coal, that puts out a lot of carbon; hydroelectric, not so much.
• Next, there’s off-site energy use. This is the invisible-to-you power consumption that happens when you have a web site (hosted by a company like GoDaddy, for example). Like your own energy consumption, the carbon load varies, depending on where your server space is located geographically.
• If you travel, then you’re generating carbon outputs. That includes cars, trains, and airplanes, power usage during hotel stays, etc. If you commute a long distance, use lots of shipping, or your employees commute or travel a lot, this can add up to quite a lot of outputs.

Determining how much carbon my business emits was pretty simple. I run a home based business, so I provided Mira with data from a couple of recent power bills along with some information about how big my house is, how many square feet my office takes up, and how many miles I travel by car and plane every year. A few hours later, Mira supplied me with a simple run-down of what my carbon emissions were.

The carbon offsets you can purchase from Terrapass are “vintage matching”, which means that you offset your carbon outputs more or less in real-time. If you purchase carbon offsets in advance of your 2008 travel, for example, you can be assured that the projects that reduce outputs by an equivalent amount are happening in 2008 as well. For Zugunuhe, our carbon credits for 2008 are based on our 2007 outputs. Terrapass’ carbon balance projects include generating wind powered electricity and converting methane from cow manure and landfills into power sources.

If you choose to reduce your carbon outputs, either for business or personal energy uses, here are some things to think about:

• Make sure that whatever business you purchase carbon credits from is certified and audited by someone like Green-e. Green-e makes certain that the carbon reduction benefits are real. As part of my research for this article, I found a non-profit that sells carbon credits but had no obvious audit process. That makes me wary. Be cautious and go for well established companies and organizations that utilize third party audit.
• Consider reducing your outputs by opting for wind power or other renewal energy sources directly from your power company. Out here in Oregon, we have the option of buying “Blue Sky” energy which is produced by wind power. That means less outputs so less to offset through a company like Terrapass.
• Invite customers to be part of the fun. Enterprise opted to match offsets (up to a full $1 million) when folks renting their cars purchase offsets for their trips. This allowed Enterprise to do good and do well--and demonstrate that their carbon balancing act wasn’t merely for marketing purposes.
• Not all carbon offsets are created equal. Manure to electricity projects reduce carbon emissions in the here and now. Rainforests are part of what regulates the earth’s climate as a whole. Ultimately, I plan to invest in both but depending on your point of view, one may be more important than the other. Bottom-line: do your homework.
• Whatever you do, be transparent and authentic. You don’t have to do everything. Just do something and be honest about what you’ve done. Don’t exaggerate and don’t lie.
• Be accurate in how you talk about your carbon reductions. The folks at Terrapass told me that it's better to say "carbon balanced" than "carbon neutral" because being carbon neutral is impossible. You're fighting global climate change, not preventing it.
• Finally, stop worrying about the cost. I offset my entire 2007 offsets for Zugunruhe for a whopping $63. That’s right--less than a $100. So there’s not excuse not to do this and the nice folks at Terrapass included me in their partners program within minutes of finalizing my purchase.

You don’t have to do everything--none of us can. But that is not an excuse to do nothing. There are no magic bullets to fix the mess we’ve put our planet in. That’s why every thing you do counts.

Now get out there are get something [good] done today!