Hopworks Urban Brewery Achieves B Corporation Certification

Portland, OR – Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB), Portland’s producer of world-class, sustainably-made beer, today announced its certification as a B Corporation. This prestigious designation is awarded to companies using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. By becoming certified, Hopworks formally and legally agrees to consider their impact not only financially but also on their workers, suppliers, community, consumers, and the environment, collectively referred to as the triple bottom line.

B Lab, the organization certifying B Corporations, seeks to build a community of Certified B Corporations that meet higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Any company can apply. There are over 1,000 Certified B Corporations from more than 60 industries in 34 countries.

The certification makes Hopworks the first B Corporation brewery in the Pacific Northwest and the seventh in the world. Hopworks is the 47th certified B Corporation in the state of Oregon.

“It is an incredible honor to become a certified B Corporation and to sit amongst the companies that we have admired for so long. Hopworks has always believed in the direct relationship between business and environmental health and it is great to have a framework to study our progress” says Hopworks brewmaster and founder Christian Ettinger. “B Lab’s application process provided an incredibly eye-opening and dynamic analysis of our efforts to date. We are proud of what we have been able to achieve in eight short years and look forward to tackling the more challenging points in the months to come. This process has really improved our focus and excited our team.”  

Hopworks’ mission is to revolutionize and inspire the brewing industry with practices that drive quality, protect the environment and improve it’s community. HUB’s conscientious practices include the use of USDA Certified Organic and  Salmon-Safe Certified ingredients in beer, donating 1% of Powell brewpub pint sales to local nonprofits, providing organic and locally-sourced pub fare, maintaining 100% “cradle to gate” carbon neutral operations and the company’s zero waste initiative.

A major initiative at Hopworks is to model environmental stewardship by reducing water consumption in the production of beer while expanding capacity and distribution. The brewery recently installed a Cleaning In Place system, which allows the brewery to conserve five times the amount of water when cleaning fermentation tanks while also saving energy and cleaner. Hopworks uses 3.39 gallons of water per gallon of beer produced, compared to an industry average of 7 to 1. Hopworks maintains water neutral operations through the purchase of credits through Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

About Hopworks Urban Brewery
Founded in 2007, Hopworks Urban Brewery is committed to brewing world-class beer as sustainably as possible using organic malts and hops sourced primarily from the Northwest. The company’s 20-barrel brewery produces 12,500 barrels of beer a year for HUB’s two brewpubs and for distribution. Hopworks, a Certified B Corporation, incorporates a range of sustainable practices in its operation and makes every effort to protect “our” future with a thoughtful alternative. HUB is 100% renewably powered and “cradle to gate” carbon neutral. Visit Hopworks online at www.HopworksBeer.com and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About B Corp
Certified B Corporations meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, legally expand their corporate responsibilities to include consideration of stakeholder interests, and build collective voice through the power of the unifying B Corporation brand. As of June 2014, there are more than 1,000 Certified B Corporations from over 60 industries and 34 countries, representing a diverse multi-billion dollar marketplace.

About B Lab
B Lab is a nonprofit organization that serves a global movement to redefine success in business so that all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world. B Lab drives this systemic change through a number of interrelated initiative: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and good marketing; 2) passing legislation to accelerate growth of social entrepreneurship and impact investing (24 states have already passed benefit corporation legislation); 3) developing B Analytics, a customizable platform for measuring, benchmarking, and reporting on impact 4) providing free, powerful tools for businesses to measure, compare and improve their social and environmental performance (more than 15,000 businesses use B Lab’s free B Impact Assessment). For more information, visit www.bcorporation.net, www.banalytics.net and www.benefitcorp.net.