Whether it be daily in life, or adjusting an act or behavior once and for all, small changes can have incredibly huge impacts – which are oftentimes also very rewarding. Something as humans that we can all try to do, is decrease our environmental footprint, which in turn, protects and sustains the world we live in. Making small changes as individuals leads to big results, and more recently, many local businesses have also been hopping on this train to help save the planet.

Funkwerks Brewery in Fort Collins is among one of the local businesses making strides to decrease their environmental footprint, and it's already making a major difference. Focusing on three areas: ingredient selection, packaging materials, and transportation, Funkwerks has been hard at work for the past eighteen months to make positive changes as a company.

To start, Funkwerks began to make the switch from using European grain to Northern American back in 2017. This step was completed in 2018, with the installation of a new malt silo at the end of summer. Because grain no longer has to be transported via freight from Europe, there has been a huge decrease in fuel usage. In addition, Funkwerks says their bag waste has been cut by nearly 56%.

Another way that the craft brewery is lessening their carbon footprint is by making a change to their bottles. If you regularly drink their beer, you may have noticed that the bottles have not only changed in appearance, but also in the amount of alcohol that they now hold. Rather than 11.2-ounce, European-made bottles, Funkwerks has switched to 12-ounce American-made bottles – and even cooler, they're produced right here in Windsor, Colorado by O-I. With that small change, the company has cut out 5,042 miles of bottle travel each time they need to stock up, which is a total of over 80,000 miles of travel saved in a year. With the bottles only being shipped from 13 miles away, as opposed to thousands, carbon emissions go way down, plus they're a lighter weight glass too.

Other plans to be more "green" are in the works for Funkwerks, which we will hopefully see take place later this year. They're a perfect example of how local companies can take steps to save the world, and it'd be super easy for others to follow suit. Cheers to that!

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