Sustainable beer brewing with barley growers reducing carbon footprint

Growing demand for sustainable products has lead some barley producers to team up with a brewing giant to become carbon neutral.

Barley growers in WA are tracking their emissions in an effort to promote a more sustainable brand for the industry.

AUSTRALIAN barley growers are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint following a collaboration with a brewing giant.

A group of growers across Western Australia’s barley growing regions in Kwinana and Albany teamed up with Heineken to start tracking their emissions and tap into a growing demand for sustainable products, according to Malting company BoortMalt malt barley merchant Liam Moltoni.

“Heineken, one of our biggest customers, are participating in a project with growers in WA and are targeting a range of different farmers from all over the Kwinana and the Albany region,” Mr Moltoni said.

“In Australia, there is little incentive to go down the path of tracking emissions and reducing our carbon foot print, but it is coming to the forefront on the demand side.”

Mr Moltoni said the new work with barley growers was breaking new ground.

“There are a lot of big grower groups forming in the Albany zone that are getting around this idea of low carbon emission barley,” he said.

“Each have different objectives including reducing their carbon footprint, water efficiency and another is soil health.”

Mr Moltoni said farmers’ carbon emissions would be tracked throughout their practices and data collected anonymously.

“We will then look at having a round table discussion in the future to have growers build the program and look at the data to see what worked and what didn’t,” he said.

“Growers and agronomists can have input on this, and promote those activities that reduce their carbon footprint.”

The program has taken off in Ireland with BoortMalt’s 600 suppliers annually completing their farm tools to know how much they produce in terms of a footprint.

“The Irish malting team had a similar idea, now Heineken are supporting growers here and we can see rapid growth,” Mr Moltoni said.

“Financial risks involved are taken out with the support of Heineken along the way which is key.”

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