The article under review, published in the Albany Herald on August 7, 2009, is called ‘miller/Coors saves while going green’ and is tagged with Business/Market/Environment. The author is Danny Carter, who is the managing editor of the paper and contributes a weekly column that is business-related. He has about twenty-five years of journalistic experience and directs overall daily coverage.
The purpose of this article is to inform the readers of steps taken by a local brewery to incorporate environment-friendly strategies in its production line (such as optimal use of raw materials and recycling of equipment) that will not only reduce manufacturing and other costs but will also be less damaging to the environment due to reduced waste production. Through simple green steps such as reducing the diameter of aluminum caps and washing and reusing protective wear like gloves, the company will save over $10 million.
More information on this topic can probably be obtained from the Miller/Coors website which will give additional details on these healthy strategies. To verify if the claims are accurate local public sites relating to the Albany landfill areas can be accessed. To gain additional information on if other breweries or local companies are taking these green steps as well, news sources or blogs can be searched online with particular keywords. To get an idea of what exactly contributes to the carbon footprint during the process of brewing, a reliable website that explains the whole process can be consulted.
The questions that come to mind while reading the article include:
- What are the steps involved in brewing and how did the process evolve?
- What can be done at each step to reduce the environmental impact of production?
- Is Miller/Coors generally an environmentally responsible organization?
- How does it deal with the problem of under-age drinking?
- Which other beer companies have been incorporating ‘green’ in their ideology and practice?
The answers can be found here:
- Pratt, Sara. ” It’s in the Water.” Geotimes 2004.
- Cohn, David. “This Green Beer’s the Real Deal.” www.wired.com, 2006.
- MillerCoors. “Healthy Environments”.
- MillerCoors. “True Responsibility”.
- Wilson, Susan. “Leading Beer Companies Believe in Being Green.” (2009).
This article is good news indicating that more and more companies and organizations are taking responsibility for their role in helping to preserve the environment and implementing tried and tested as well as innovative methods to this end. The proof of Miller/Coors actually doing all this lies in their Sustainability Report on their website.