Sustainability
Mission Statement
At Wicked Weed, we understand that brewing great beer requires the use of natural resources, so we’re taking deliberate sustainability steps to reduce our usage. We strive to go above and beyond just environmental compliance, with an effort to continuously reduce or eliminate all adverse impacts to the environment. Our pursuit of the perfect pint will always come with a focus on protecting our environment.
SUSTAINABILITY & COMMUNITY
We are committed to serving our community through financial partnerships, volunteerism, and building a gathering place for all.
We work with core partnerships in the areas of PEOPLE, the ENVIRONMENT, and the ARTS by investing in our local economy and supporting our fellow neighbors.
Packaging Recyclability & Circularity
To ensure our packaged products are diverted from the landfill to better uses, we are engaging our consumers to help us out. We have partnered with both How2Recycle and CIRT to ensure the recyclability of our products. How2Recycle labeling is being added to all Wicked Weed Brewing packaging, with the first being Dr. Dank Daily Haze. Wicked Weed is proud to be the first craft brewery to add standardized recycling labels to our products through the How2Recycle platform.
We have partnered with CIRT to help consumers understand how and where to recycle our products in their area. It’s super easy – Click on this link, enter your location, and select the product to learn how to recycle it: https://wicked-weed-recoverability.webflow.io/.
Thank you for helping to keep our packaging out of a landfill and reducing our environmental impact. Cheers!
Ready to Recycle Our Packaging?
Click on this link, enter your location, and select the product to learn how to recycle it:
Community Initiatives
Beers that Build
Through our philanthropic wing of the company, Beers That Build works with core partnerships focusing on PEOPLE, the ENVIRONMENT, and the ARTS by investing in our local economy and supporting our fellow neighbors.
Keep America Beautiful Grant
In collaboration with Keep America Beautiful®, we’re proud to be part of a series of community restoration and clean-up initiatives being led by craft breweries across the country. Wicked Weed will kick off the collaboration this May 2021 in partnership with Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy to plant 5000 Red Spruce-Frasier Fir seedlings in the Roan Highlands, connecting habitat “islands” to allow rare species to move back and forth, and help to shade and protect two high elevation brook trout streams.
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy
Wicked Weed helped protect the 150 acres that will be added to Roan Mountain State Park this year; the 448 acres of the future Chestnut Mountain Park in Canton, NC in 2020; and the 456 acres to connect protected land in the Yellow Mountain State Natural Area in 2019. Speaking of trees, Wicked Weed purchased 6,000 Red spruce seedlings that were planted at two protected locations atop the Roan Highlands above 5,000 feet in elevation. Their contribution also funded staff time, travel, and equipment. In 12-15 years we will see the "Wicked Weed forest" with mature Red Spruce trees thriving, which will support habitat and aquatic life.
Employee Engagement
Wicked Weed's Sustainability Committee, the Green Freaks, meet monthly to review sustainability data such as water usage and waste diversion rates and to discuss ways to further improve our sustainability efforts.
Our Internal Environmental Observation and Notification reporting system encourages all employees to report issues such as water leaks or innovative ideas, to further reduce our environmental impact.
Internal Initiatives
Carbon offsets let you help build projects in communities across the country that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions beyond what you can achieve through individual action. Carbon offsets are purchased to fund these projects and diminish the impact of your own GHG emissions, even though the projects are located elsewhere. Carbon Offsets make environmental and economic sense- for emissions that are impossible to reduce, you can use funds to help reduce emissions elsewhere.
At Wicked Weed, we purchased credits from Appalachian Offsets to offset GHG emissions from our local delivery box truck and vans.
Wicked Weed worked with CarbonROI to complete a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory project in 2021. Through this, we inventoried our GHG emissions throughout our beer production process. The next step in this journey is to continue collecting data, develop detailed plans to reduce our GHG emissions, and set carbon emission reduction goals and targets. More to come!
Through our partnership with Anheuser Busch, 100% of our electricity to brew, packaging, and ship our beers is offset by renewable electricity projects. Go here to learn more about this exciting achievement: https://www.anheuser-busch.com/community/initiative/renewable-electricity/