Aug 01, 2024

The Sustainability of Wine vs. Beer

by Krystina Jarvis

Listen to the audio of this post here:

This post first appeared in our weekly Make Waves Mondays email series on July 29, 2024.

Okay so I’m really excited about today’s blog.

It’s a topic that’s been on my “That would be so much fun to write a blog about!” list for literally a year and a half now, and I’m so excited that it’s finally happening 🤗🤗🤗

This week’s topic is one of those, “Does it *really* matter, Krystina?” kinda topics, but also just a lot of fun to think about and super interesting to research.

In honor of International Beer Day this Friday, today we’re talking about the sustainability of wine 🍷 versus beer 🍺…because why the heck not?? 😄

Now before we get into this, I wanna note that while I looked at several different articles, studies, and books for this research, none of them were really a true apples-to-apples comparison. I did my best to standardize the data and compare things as equally as possible, but there’s just going to be some aspects that aren’t quite evaluated the same way. And honestly I think that’s okay for this topic! I truly just wanted to have some fun with sustainability today - not stress over the minutia.

So let’s dive into it!

🍺 The Sustainability of Beer

Agriculture and Production

So obviously there are many different types of beer, but the main elements of what makes up any given beer are barley, hops, yeast, and water.

According to a 2009 article reviewing an analysis of Fat Tire Amber Ale, the agriculture and production of one liter of beer produces about 318g of carbon dioxide equivalent (or CO2e).

💡 CO2 equivalent (CO2e) is the standard unit of measure for carbon footprints. It takes all the greenhouse gas emissions and standardizes them to carbon dioxide emissions, rather than breaking them out into carbon dioxide, methane, etc.

However, of that 318g of CO2e, about 115g come from the synthetic fertilizers that are used to grow the barley. So right off the bat we can see that organic farming could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of a pint of beer, just by removing those synthetic fertilizers.

Another study from 2018 in Sweden found that between agriculture and production, one liter of beer emits quite a bit more carbon dioxide, at 580g CO2e.

So from these two studies, let’s say that the actual production of a liter of beer emits, on average, 449g CO2e.

Refrigeration

So I only found the impact of refrigeration mentioned in one article, but I thought it was super interesting to think about and I honestly wouldn’t have even considered it if it weren’t for this article.

According to that same 2009 article from before, refrigerating beer (both in the store and at home) accounts for a whole third of the beer’s carbon footprint 😳

So by choosing a beer that doesn’t need to be stored cold from beginning to end can cut a whole bunch of emissions, too.

Packaging

Lucky for us, friend, all of the articles I read for this blog agreed on the sustainability hierarchy for beer packaging:

Draft is better than refillable glass…is better than locally-produced glass…is better than aluminum…is better than single-use, non-locally produced glass.

A 2008 article even went a little deeper on the refillable glass aspect (which, of course, we LOVE to see around here 😉) and found that even with trucking empty beer bottles back to the brewery, if the bottle is refilled just 20 times and the glass bottle recycling rate over that same period of time was just 42%, a refillable glass bottle option is the more carbon-friendly packaging option than both aluminum and single-use glass.

And, even though full kegs are super heavy to transport, kegs themselves last for 15-20 years and per serving of beer are actually quite a bit lighter to transport than glass bottles.

The 2018 Swedish study broke down the numbers even further:

🍺 Draft beer emits just 40g CO2e per liter of beer,
🍺 Refillable glass bottles of beer emit 100g CO2e per liter of beer,
🍺 Aluminum cans of beer emit 140g CO2e per liter of beer, and
🍺 Single-use glass bottles of beer emit 340g CO2e per liter of beer.

So, obviously the solution here is that everyone should own a kegerator and buy their beer in kegs 😂

I’m kidding, clearly, but if you’re out at your local pub, opt for draft over cans or bottles when you can - bonus points if the brewery is local!

Water Use

The water impacts of beer were mentioned surprisingly little in all of these analyses, but according to the Water Footprint Network, it takes about 298 liters of water to produce one liter of beer. Nearly all of this water comes from the process of growing the barley.

Distribution and Transportation

Speaking of local breweries, transportation impacts are a little more tricky than we might think.

In his book How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything, Mike Berners-Lee explains that there’s a difference between shipping freight emissions and road miles emissions.

Mike breaks down the differences a bit more in his wine analysis (so we’ll see more about it in a minute), but in his analysis, he found that the total carbon footprint of a locally-bottled beer and a foreign draft beer are actually about the same (approximately 500g CO2e).

This is because beer bottles are quite heavy to transport, and according to a 2023 MIT breakdown of freight emissions, ships are able to carry so much more cargo at once that they’re the most efficient way to transport cargo. Trucks, on the other hand, emit about 100 times as much carbon dioxide as cargo ships to transport the same amount of freight over the same distance.

So if you’re opting for a bottled brew, choose local whenever possible!

🍺 So what’s the carbon footprint of beer?

Based on the info I could find - including a full life-cycle analysis of Fat Tire Amber Ale (seriously amazing that this exists!!) - one liter of beer emits anywhere from 633g to 1,900g CO2e (or, one pint of beer emits between 300gand 900 CO2e).

🌱 633g CO2e is the emissions equivalent of driving 1.6 miles in an average passenger vehicle, and 1,900g CO2e is the equivalent of driving 4.9 miles.

🍺 One draft pint of locally-brewed beer emits about 300g CO2e.
🍺 One can of Fat Tire Amber Ale emits about 531g CO2e.
🍺 One bottle of beer brewed overseas emits about 900g CO2e.

To limit the carbon footprint of your beers, look for:

Draft or refillable glass bottle options
Local breweries
Organic breweries
Non-refrigerated beer
Breweries using creative solutions to reduce waste and emissions

And now, onto wine!