Corporate Social Responsibility Of New Belgium Brewery – Environmental Issues & Strategies

Describe about the Business Ethics and Social Responsibility for Business Responsebilities.

According to Navi (2012), every business has some responsibilities toward the environment in which they operate which include the society, employees of the company, people from the adjacent community, etc. This is called Corporate Social Responsibilities. Every business irrespective of the size and nature of the industry needs to perform these responsibilities. Apart from all these, there are other responsibilities like to save the energy, save the water, save the electricity, employ sustainable production process, etc. It has been seen that the big corporation often tend to ignore these responsibilities toward the society, but the comparatively small companies are more efficient towards the corporate social responsibilities (Clapp and Rowlands 2014).

This study is about the evaluation of corporate social responsibilities of the company named New Belgium Brewing. The company was situated in the year of 1991 by Jeff Lebesch. After having a trip to Belgium, Mr. Jeff became inspired with the ales of Belgium and decided to come back to Colorado to start his brewery. After taken the feedback from his friends, Mr. Jeff started to market his beer and that’s the start of the journey of New Belgium Brewery (www.newbelgium.com 2016).

The primary aim of the report is to evaluate the corporate social responsibilities of New Belgium Brewery as they are the trendsetter in the brewery industry for their initiatives to sustain the environment. The study tries to recognize the environmental issues they are dealing with and what are the strategies they have taken to address those issues. At last based on the whole study, a conclusion has been drawn.

Issues

New Belgium Brewery is a company which produces beers in the stares of Colorado. In spite of the fact that they are an alcohol manufacturing company, they take great care of the environment that they are operating in. In other words, they are the trendsetter in this industry regarding taking care of the environment. They have addressed all types of environmental issues that are caused by their operation and it is a continuing process (Paiva et al. 2015). The issues are discussed below:

One of the major issues NBB are addressing is to prevent the wastage of water. Brewer industry needs a lot of water to produce beer. The production process creates a lot of waste water. NBB has taken this issue very seriously and working toward it. Another problem they are addressing is to save the power. They are against the type of energy which causes the air pollution. That’s why they are searching for alternative energy sources. NBB is determined to make use of the wastages as they are one of the greatest reasons for pollution. They are taking strategies to maximum use of the resources they use. They believe in the concept of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Overall, NBB has addressed all types of issues that can harm the environment (Melo and Garridoâ€ÂMorgado 2012).

Competitive Advantage

NBB has taken some amazing strategies to address the above-discussed issues. They have taken several steps to promote eco-friendly business. To address the water issue they have taken some steps. First of all, NBB has launched a system which captures the wasted water from the factory and extracts the methane from it. This process contributes to the 15% power supply to the production process. Then, NBB has installed a steam condenser which catches & reuses the hot water and use the water to boil the barley for the production process. Their future goal about water is to use 3.5 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of beer (www.newbelgium.com 2016).

The next step is to save the energy. For this purpose, they have installed a smart grid which gives them indication when there is any wastage of energy. To produce the necessary electricity of their own, they have installed a 20 kilowatt photovoltaic which generates 3% of the electricity the company use. Using of sub-tunnels provides daytime light to the beer factory throughout the year. The company is aiming to recycle the supplies as many as possible. They use to gather the extra barley & hop grains and distribute them to the farmers free of cost to feed the domestic animals. These are the steps NBB has taken to address the environmental issues (www.newbelgium.com 2016).

According to Pearce, Barbier and Markandya (2013), each and every business has some core value which sets the directions for them. Some of the business’s primary aim is to earn more revenues and maximize the profits. They don’t even care about the environment, communities, etc. However, New Belgium Brewery is not among them. The main aim of the business is not only earning revenues but also take good care of the environment in which they are operating. At the start of the business, Mr. Jeff Lebesch and his wife Kim Jordan climbed to the top of a mountain and they wrote some values which are still the core values of the company. Anyone can see the edited version of the written values in the official website of the company. They believed that their business is not only earning money, but the business would have some core values as the life of the company. That is the reason NBB do not believe in only taking from the environment i.e. resources, but they believe in giving back something to the environment. Whenever they get the chance of doing something good for the environment, they grab the opportunity. In overall, these are the reasons why NBB has taken such steps towards the sustainability of the environment (Reid 2013).

Socially Responsible Corporation

According to Baker and Sinkula (2015), Twenty-first centuries is the era of extreme competition. Companies are in the race of going ahead of each other. In this situation, the primary motive of almost every company is to maximize the profit by maximizing the revenue. And for this reason, they are ignoring the source of all the things, the environment. However, making a profit is the priority of every company, but it is not the only priority of the companies. It must be kept in mind that the source of all energy and resources is Environment. But the environment also has limited resources and every company must keep that in mind. Nowadays companies all over the world are paying attention to the environment issues after watching the fatal effects of Global Warming. Now, they are getting the matter that they should take care of the environment to stay in business; otherwise, the day is not far when the resources of the environment will be finished and the whole world will be in extreme danger (Campbell, Coff and Kryscynski 2012).

But the story is totally different in the case of New Belgium Brewery. NBB is such a company that took the initiative of sustainable development at the first day of the beginning of the company. The core values about the environment development are same still today as the first day of the company. Mr. Jeff believed in something which would differentiate the company from the others and that is not the amount of money that the business would. According to Mr. Jeff, the USB of NBB would be sustainability with profit making. That would balance both the objectives of the company i.e. to expand the business by making a profit with taking good care of the environment. From the beginning day, New Belgium Brewery adopted the theory of Triple Bottom line, commonly known as TBL approach. As pet TBL, the success of the business is measured not by how much money the business has made but by economic, social and environmental progress. From that time the NBB has developed a culture of sustainable development (Marchi, Maria and Micelli 2013).

When the company was incorporated its business, it was a subtle business with some limited assets. At present the company is also behind of some of the big players in this industry like Coloradan Coors, but the growth story of the company is far better than some of the big players in this industry. The projected sales of NBB are more than $180 million. NBB is selling more than 8,00,000 barrels of beers per year and it is estimated to increase in the future. The craft beer industry is witnessing a growth of 11% where the total consumption of beer is not good. This fact indicates the contribution of NBB in the crafted beer industry (Yadav, Han, and Kim 2016).

NBB is behind of some major player in this industry like D.G. Yuengling and Son, Boston Beer Co. and the Sierra Nevada regarding market share; but when the matter is about environmentally sustainable development, New Belgium Brewery is far more ahead than the other. By seeing the contribution of NBB towards the environmental issues, other brewery companies like Boston Beer Co and the Sierra Nevada are planning to contribute to the cause of environmental issues. NBB has won a lot of major awards over the year for their well business plan which includes the environment as a vital aspect. They won Business Ethics Award from Business Ethics Magazine for their innovative steps taken in the production process. They have won the award of “Best mid-sized brewing company of the year.” The inclusion of the company in The Wall Street Journal is a worthy achievement. They are receiving several awards for their different beer brands; even customers write them about their different products (Saeidi et al. 2015).

Form the above discussion; it is clear that New Belgium Brewery is one of the leading beer makers in Colorado irrespective of their size. Though NBB is behind some of the top players in market share, but they are far more advance than any companies regarding dealing with environmental issues and their eco-friendly business culture. The responsibility towards the environment gives them an advantage over their competitors (Forsman 2013).

Different people has different thinking process; rather it can be said that different era has different thinking process. People from a different era, different time thinks differently. Hence, it is obvious that there will be a conflict among the thought process of different people. Now coming to the context of social responsibilities of alcohol and tobacco products manufacturing companies, it is a debatable issue. Most of the people from different era think that alcohol and tobacco manufacturing companies cannot have any responsibility towards the environment and the society as they are producing the products which are harmful to the health of the people. This is a very fact that consumption of tobacco and alcohol is indeed injurious to health. Both the products cause cancer. According to World Health Organization, the number of people dies in the world due to cancer is 8.2 million and the number is continuously increasing. Standing at this point, this question naturally arises that are the alcohol and tobacco products manufacturing companies socially responsible corporations? This particular question can be answered by taking into consideration the operation of New Belgium Brewery (Yoon and Lam 2013).

New Belgium Brewery is a company which produces crafted beer in the regions of Colorado. Some people of the community have raised a question that is NBB an environmentally responsible company? The main reason behind this question is that NBB produces alcohol that is harmful to the health of the people. The answer can be given by explaining the values, operations and strategies of the NBB regarding the environmental issues (Galea and McKee 2014).

New Belgium Brewery is a company which believes that sustainable development is the heart of their organization. NBB does not believe in taking from the environment; they are determined to return something to the environment. As the environment is the source of maximum resources NBB use for their production, they have taken some mind blowing strategies to address various issues about the environment. It is a universal fact that alcohol and tobacco are something which causes injury to health. That’s why NBB believes in the concept of Responsible Drinking. According to NBB, if people choose to drink responsibly, the company will do everything for the betterment of the society and environment. And NBB has kept their promise (Servaes and Tamayo 2013).

Maybe NBB is an alcohol manufacturing company, but their eco-friendly organizational culture is far better than any other companies. They have taken strategies to prevent the wastage of water. The total wastage of water in NBB is 1% as they make all the waste water usable. They have installed different plant and machines to preserve the energy; they also have a photovoltaic array that can produce electricity for the factory. They have plans to build windmills to produce electricity. On the other hand, NBB takes utmost care to their employees. NBB is a fully employee-owned company. All the employees and the mangers believe in sustainable development and they have an eco-friendly business culture (Christensen, Mackey and Whetten 2014).

From the above study, it can be seen that New Belgium Brewery is an environment dedicated company. Though they produce beer, still they do not leave any chance to do some goods for the environment. NBB is inviting people to drink their beers, but they are telling to drink beer responsibly. For the reason NBB is using resources from the environment, they have taken strategies to address the environment related issues and they are successful in that so far. People from all over the world and all industries are applauding their initiatives to make good for the environment. Nowadays, New Belgium Brewery is widely known for their sustainable development strategies. Hence, it is clear that New Belgium Brewery is a socially responsible corporation. NBB is a perfect example of the fact that doing well for the environment doesn’t require the industry background; even an alcohol beverage or a tobacco product manufacturer can protect the environment better than other companies (Frederickson, Moldavanova and Stazyk 2014).

Conclusion

Standing at the claw of global warming, sustainable development is a growing issue to the organizations all over the world. It has been seen that big corporations sometimes tend to ignore the issue of environmental damages, but the small and midsize corporations are adopting the strategies to address those issues and they have been successful in doing so. It is the responsibility of every company irrespective of size and industry to address the environmental issues and take care of the society.

This study evaluates the different sustainable strategies of the beer manufacturer in Colorado, New Belgium Brewery. Though NBB is not a big corporation, the sustainable strategies they have taken from the day one of their business is commendable. The founder of the company Mr. Jeff Lebesch believed that there would be some purposes that would be the heart of the company beyond profitability. And the purpose was sustainable development. The core values which Mr. Jeff wrote that day, still motivates the business today and these values differentiate New Belgium Brewery from other companies. NBB has addressed all environmental issues caused by their operations. The issues are wastage of water, saving energy; reuse the waste materials, etc. If a company wants to protect the environment, it has every right to do so. There is nothing like that a company which produces alcohol or tobacco products cannot be called a socially responsible corporation. There should be a message from the company end that will request the customer to take alcohol or tobacco responsibly without harming their health.

References

Baker, W.E. and Sinkula, J.M., 2015. Maintaining Competitive Advantage Through Organizational Unlearning. In Proceedings of the 1999 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 206-209). Springer International Publishing.

Campbell, B.A., Coff, R. and Kryscynski, D., 2012. Rethinking sustained competitive advantage from human capital. Academy of Management Review, 37(3), pp.376-395.

Christensen, L.J., Mackey, A. and Whetten, D., 2014. Taking responsibility for corporate social responsibility: The role of leaders in creating, implementing,

Clapp, J. and Rowlands, I.H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility. Essential Concepts of Global Environmental Governance, p.42.

Forsman, H., 2013. Environmental innovations as a source of competitive advantage or vice versa?. Business Strategy and the Environment, 22(5), pp.306-320.

Frederickson, H.G., Moldavanova, A. and Stazyk, E.C., 2014. Sustainability, intergenerational social equity, and the socially responsible organization.Administration

Galea, G. and McKee, M., 2014. Public–private partnerships with large corporations: setting the ground rules for better health. Health policy, 115(2), pp.138-140.

Marchi, V.D., Maria, E.D. and Micelli, S., 2013. Environmental strategies, upgrading and competitive advantage in global value chains. Business strategy and the environment, 22(1), pp.62-72.

Melo, T. and Garridoâ€ÂMorgado, A., 2012. Corporate reputation: A combination of social responsibility and industry. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 19(1), pp.11-31.

Navi, S.T., 2012. Corporate social responsibility.

Newbelgium.com. (2016). Environmental Metrics. [online] Available at: https://www.newbelgium.com/sustainability/environmental-metrics [Accessed 17 Sep. 2016].

Newbelgium.com. (2016). files/sustainability/new_belgium_sustainability_brochure.pdf?pdf=sustainabilityreport. [online] Available at: https://www.newbelgium.com/files/sustainability/new_belgium_sustainability_brochure.pdf?pdf=sustainabilityreport [Accessed 17 Sep. 2016].

Newbelgium.com. (2016). History and Core Values and Beliefs. [online] Available at: https://www.newbelgium.com/Brewery/company/history [Accessed 17 Sep. 2016].

Paiva, E.L., Biazzin, C., Di Serio, L.C. and de Andrade, M.C.F., 2015. Is There a Bitter Flavor in Sustainability for the Sugar-Alcohol Industry?.Journal of Operations and Supply Chain Management, 8(1), pp.46-56.

Pearce, D., Barbier, E. and Markandya, A., 2013. Sustainable development: economics and environment in the Third World. Routledge.

Reid, D., 2013. Sustainable development: an introductory guide. Routledge.

Saeidi, S.P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S.P. and Saaeidi, S.A., 2015. How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), pp.341-350.

Servaes, H. and Tamayo, A., 2013. The impact of corporate social responsibility on firm value: The role of customer awareness. Management Science, 59(5), pp.1045-1061.

Yadav, P.L., Han, S.H. and Kim, H., 2016. Sustaining Competitive Advantage Through Corporate Environmental Performance. Business Strategy and the Environment.

Yoon, S. and Lam, T.H., 2013. The illusion of righteousness: corporate social responsibility practices of the alcohol industry. BMC Public Health, 13(1), p.630.