Red Hook diverts 150,000 lbs of excess grain a week to local dairy farm

By Jim Cavan

Chances are the last time you enjoyed a beer at breakfast was probably in college. But if you ask Doug MacNair, head brewer at Red Hook Brewery in Newington, you may have already had a little in your cereal this morning.

That’s because the folks at Red Hook divert close to 150,000 pounds of “spent grain” from their brewhouse to a number of New England dairy farms every week. The refuse, which would have otherwise ended up in a landfill and includes leftover hops, protein bi-products and even yeast, is instead given to the cows as feed.

For the farmers it’s a no-brainer: it’s cheap and proven to be just as nutritious as traditional forms of feed, including grass. Meanwhile Red Hook can rest assured that their famed brew’s organic refuse isn’t going to waste.

The program has also been a staple of the company’s cornerstone Seattle and Woodinville breweries in Washington since shortly after Red Hook’s founding in 1982.

According to MacNair, many breweries across the country do much the same thing; it just tends to go unnoticed. “We’ve been diverting the spent grain since the beginning,” says MacNair, who began his career with Red Hook’s original Seattle brewery before heading East to help jumpstart the New Hampshire operation in 1996. “But we just started adding the yeast a few years back, and as far as we know that’s pretty unique, because until recently most people thought it was bad to feed to cows.”

As it turns out, feeding yeast to cows is actually harmless.

According to Caroline Ferry of Milky Way Farm in Westport, Massachusetts -- the chief benefactor of Red Hook’s efforts -- having access to cheap and healthy food for their nearly 800 cows has proved a boon to the family business. “Unlike other farmers who do something like this, we have our own truck, so it ends up being a lot cheaper, and we even end up selling a lot of it to other farms in the area” explains Ferry. “It’s great for the cows, and we’ve gotten nothing but great milk because of it.”

In addition to their extensive organic recycling program, Red Hook has also spearheaded a number of other efficiency-minded projects, including switching from plastic to corn-based cups in their restaurant, recycling all CFL light bulbs, and coming close to cutting their wastewater in half with the help of an on-site water treatment facility.

The brewery is also exploring harnessing excess methane from the water treatment facility to help augment the power supply.

Red Hook joined the Seacoast-based Green Alliance last fall in an effort to bolster their sustainability efforts.
 

Guest Blog: Students dig trash to learn about recycling, composting

Courtesy of the Portsmouth Herald

By Abbie Hackett
news@seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH — Sporting plastic gloves and aprons, students in Bryan Mascio's science class picked through soggy lettuce, Styrofoam trays smeared with ketchup and leaky coffee cups in the lunchroom at Robert J. Lister Academy recently, as they sought to reduce waste from the school.

They succeeded.

It was the kickoff to a study unit focusing on achieving zero waste with guest demonstrators Rian Bedard, Marcel Miranda and Karina Quintans from The Zero Waste Portsmouth Group. ZWP was founded by the Islington Creek Neighborhood Association in 2009 and partners with Tim Gaudreau Studios and Eco Movement to promote zero waste policies and programs in the city.

"It's just a matter of us knowing what can be recycled," Miranda said. "Every one of us has the ability to make a difference."

To read the rest of the article, click here!

Premium Brands makes three different services cleaner and greener

It’s that time of year again: spring cleaning, a time when the mops and brooms come out of hiding, the dust flies, the dirt flees, and most guys schedule weekend casino getaways.

But for Chris Culcasi, it means another busy season making the cleaning rounds.

Culcasi is the owner of Premium Brands, a combination of three separate products and services, each providing unique and healthy alternatives to home cleaning and maintenance. But while he’s certainly proud of all of his services, one in particular elicits the most excitement: his unique -- and decidedly green -- carpet cleaning service.

Culcasi owns two Oxi-Fresh carpet cleaning franchises – one in New Hampshire, and one in Massachusetts. What sets Oxi-Fresh apart from traditional carpet cleaning companies? In short: everything. Instead of driving a big van and hauling equipment that often requires more than 50 gallons of water to treat your carpet, Culcasi instead uses only 2 gallons of his “encapsulation” product, which crystallizes the dirt and makes it far easier to remove. Also, using the Oxi-Fresh method means your carpets dry in a fraction of the time, preventing mold and other harmful particulates from gathering in and around your carpet.

“It’s really simple: our method is the best because it’s the newest technology, it’s using the safest products, and it yields very low moisture,” explains Culcasi, who spent ten years managing corporate office buildings in Massachusetts before moving to New Hampshire in 2007.

Not only is the product non-toxic and biodegradable, but it costs just the same as a standard carpet clean, without the tremendous waste of energy and water.

Now or Never to film upcoming Building Energy 2010 conference in Boston

Now or Never Media -- who has also shot a number of commercials for a variety of GA Business Partners -- will be shooting and airing live streaming workshops, participants and trade show vendors at the BUILDING ENERGY 2010 conference at the World Trade Center in Boston March 9-11.

If you can't be in Boston, here is your chance to have a virtual visit to the conference where you can learn about cutting edge trends in sustainable building, design and planning.

Click here to see what's happening at the largest sustainability conference in the Northeast!

Zev Yoga: A Holistic Approach

Owner and instructor Jonas Amberger founded Zev Yoga in 2006. He’s been practicing Yoga since 1993 and became an instructor in 1997. Jonas has been teaching the ancient traditions of Ashtanga yoga to Seacoast residents for over 10 years. Ashtanga Yoga is a method that involves synchronizing the breath with a progressive series of postures—a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs. The result is improved circulation, a light and strong body, and a calm mind.

Managing Your Green 101: Seacoast Asset Management Gives a Crash Course in Personal Finances

By Sarah Brown

GA Director

I’ll admit it: Mark Sullivan, owner of Seacoast Asset Management, had to drag me kicking and screaming to the table.  Sure, I had some modest investments, and many would tell you I’m probably one of the most frugal people on the planet. But I had never in a million years considered getting “help” managing my money, or assets, as they are properly called. 

So when Seacoast Asset Management joined the Green Alliance as a Business Partner, and principal Mark Sullivan suggested I undergo a comprehensive financial analysis, I had to do it.  “It’s part of my job,” I thought.

Now, two months later, after an extensive crash course in responsibly managing my family’s assets, I wonder: what took me so long?  I spend so much time and energy pinching my pennies and conserving my resources, why did I never give due diligence to the big picture?  And what about the mantra of the Green Alliance itself (the organization I founded and run); educating and inspiring individuals and businesses to make better choices, choices that will lessen their impact on the environment. Shouldn’t I apply that philosophy to the management of my money? In that regard, Sullivan’s audit of my financial situation is probably the best thing that ever happened to me – now that I know where I stand, and I have engaged an expert in the field, I can move forward and make better, more educated choices on how I spend, save and manage my funds.

“Even after twenty six years in this industry, it still seems very confusing, and at the risk of sounding conspiratorial, it might seem like those who run it like to keep it that way,” explains Sullivan. 

Indeed, most middle or working-class Americans do not give too much in-depth thought to financial planning, preferring instead to deal with monies on a weekly or monthly basis.  “This kind of inattention begins early,” adds Sullivan.  “If you look at the lack of education in the basic principles of how the market works, how to manage one’s own earnings, how credit, debt and principle work, you see very little educating around this in our society, despite the great race that we are all running in pursuit of wealth accumulation. Most people spend more time planning their summer vacations than they do planning how to become financially independent.”