Sustainability is part of the ethos at Stone & Wood Brewing Co., an O-I client based in Brisbane, Australia. The craft brewery is deeply engaged in reducing its environmental footprint in every part of the process, from ingredients to beer packaging to waste. The brewery and O-I are working together to reduce waste and make the best use out of recycled beer bottles.
Stone & Wood works with O-I to “tighten the loop” by sending its used glass bottles to the same place it buys its beer bottles: O-I’s Brisbane plant.
“By us starting to send our waste glass direct back to O-I to be used into new bottles, we’re really helping to increase that recycled content,” says James Perrin, sustainability manager at Stone & Wood. “The bottles that we’re buying from Brisbane are now over 60% recycled and as we extend our cullet back to O-I, we can work towards over 90 – who knows, maybe even a 100% recycled bottle.”
“Being closely aligned and working closely with our customers on joint sustainability goals is one of the most efficient and direct ways to make progress on our collectively sustainability objectives,” says Jim Nordmeyer, V.P. of Global Sustainability at O-I.
The brewery is highly conscious of taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint, from sourcing ingredients as locally as possible to reducing waste. Stone & Wood makes a point to work with companies like O-I who share their sustainability values.
“Businesses need to be responsible not just for the product they are putting out into the world, but also the impact they’re having environmentally with their waste streams,” says James Perrin, Stone & Wood’s sustainability manager. “To be able to work with a like-minded business on reusing that waste stream as a resource directly back into our product is amazing.”
