Great Lakes Brewing Company, a microbrewery in Cleveland, is taking the green brewing initiative a step farther by fueling its vehicles with straight vegetable oil. Yes, you read it right – vegetable oil.
With this information, please take a moment to realize how massive the green movement has become. Now, simply just brewing green beer can be considered mediocre. Companies, like Great Lakes, are taking it to the next level: the cutting edge of sustainability.
At first, the alternative fuel started as a tactic for publicity and customer relations. Great Lakes developed the “Fatty Wagon,” a van that runs on vegetable oil, which shuttles its 
customers to and from the Cleveland Indians games.
The van proved that vegetable oil was not only cheaper than gas and diesel, but it elicited better gas mileage, better air quality and better lubrication of fuel injectors. In addition, the exhaust smoke gives off the ever-so-tasty smell of french fries. Don’t let the aroma temp you though because indulging in McDonalds French Fries wouldn’t really go with an organic diet.
After witnessing the benefits of the alternative fuel, Great Lakes decided to convert one of its semi-trucks to run on straight vegetable oil. Now, not only does this truck distribute beer made from organic products, the delivery truck utilizes a sustainable fuel method.
And just a FYI to my older audience, a truck that delivers beer and smells like french fries while doing it is most likely to appear on a college student’s list of top ten inventions.
But on the serious side, what makes this a PR lesson is that Great Lakes Brewing was not shy about going green. The company not only understood the value of going green in terms of the environment, but it also understood the value of going green in terms of publicity without greenwashing. Great Lakes launched an advertising and marketing campaign to alert the world about its adoption of truly green tactics.
Along with alternative fuels, Great Lakes Brewing Company has an energy efficient cooling system. The system was designed to bring in cold air during the winter months to cool the beer.
Other sustainability tactics utilized from Great Lakes range from the use of organic mushrooms and all-natural meat, dairy and produce on its Brewpub menu to recycling cardboard, glass, plastic, steel/aluminum, paper and brewer’s barley, reducing trash removal fee by 40%. See a more in-depth explanation of its green methods here.
So the next time your chugging – I mean slowly enjoying a Great Lakes brew, take the time to cheers the company for making an extraordinary effort in going green.
Greener PRactices 
April 24, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I think what Great Lakes Brewing Company is doing is really great. They are not afraid to let it be known that they are going green for more important reasons than the fact that everyone else is doing it and because it is a major global issue right now. Also substituting vegetable oil for gas in their semi trucks and other vehicles is a great idea that they should be very proud of. You don’t hear about any other companies doing things like that and they also have their own shuttle running on vegetable oil that shuttles people to and from Indian’s games which I thought was really cool. On top of the vegetable oil being cheaper and more efficient for vehicles to run off of, it gives off a delicious smelling odor that doesn’t pollute our environment as much. If I were working for another brewing company or any company for that matter, I would take notes on the Great Lakes Brewing Company and try to begin to adopt a similar plan for the future in order to become more efficient and caring when it comes to our environment and the people living in it because they have the right idea so far.
-Christopher Patrick