Here are some stories on sustainability in the booze world you might want to read: Why Packaging Is Wine’s New Sustainability Frontier, Liquor.com How producers are choosing locally-made glass, lighter bottles and aluminum cans, and less-wasteful packaging. Bartenders Guide to Foraging Nettles, DiffordsGuide.com And how to make nettle cordial. Why Spirits and Wine Producers Are Turning to Regenerative Farming, Liquor.com "A new laser-focus on the rhizosphere—the soil and its microorganisms—by farmers and winemakers is analogous to the surge of interest in the human microbiome among nutrition and health advocates, with the producers linking soil health to the overall wellbeing of... Read more →

I recently read this article on FoodPrint.org called "Searching for Ethical Sugar." It's a look into the source and sustainability of the sugars we use in drinks. There is a lot of good information in it, so I encourage you to read it. I've pasted some highlights below, but the short answer is that it's a good idea to buy Fairtrade and/or Organic sugar. Unlike these other crops, though, sugar — the stand-alone product as well as the ingredient — is lacking in traceability. Even sugar that claims it was made in the USA may not have been grown within... Read more →

In this post I cherry pick a few tips out of two books that aren't really intended for the bartender audience. The book Street Smart Sustainability: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Profitably Greening Your Organization's DNA by David Mager and Joe Sibilia is not aimed at bars but more small to mid-sized businesses. I did find a few points useful in it though, so I'll put them together here. These are all directed toward management/ownership. Involving Employees in the Waste Audit. The book covers a lot on conducting a waste audit. It covers the case for all sorts of businesses but... Read more →

How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee The publisher's description of this book is: From a text message to a war, from a Valentine's rose to a flight or even having a child, How Bad are Bananas? gives us the carbon answers we need and provides plenty of revelations. By talking through a hundred or so items, Mike Berners-Lee sets out to give us a carbon instinct for the footprint of literally anything we do, buy and think about. He helps us pick our battles by laying out the orders of magnitude. The book ranges... Read more →