Sustainability

At Deschutes, sustainably brewing beer and getting it out to our fans with the lowest impact on the planet as possible is engrained in everything we do.

We believe in our core value, The Time for Better is Now, and every day look for ways to lessen our environmental impact by using fewer resources and returning what we can to nature. Our home of Bend has incredible access to the outdoors right in our backyard, so preservation of our natural places both in Oregon and everywhere we sell beer is deeply rooted in our core. 

Here’s how we do our part:

  • We partner with several conservation organizations including the Conservation Alliance, Deschutes River Conservancy, Freshwater Trust, Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, and more, to support their incredible efforts to protect our wild places and waterways. 

  • We’re a Green Power Partner through the EPA, and a member of the DOE Better Plants Program committing to 10% energy use reduction before the end of 2023.

  • We purchase renewable energy through the Blue Sky program annually, and take pride in working to minimize our carbon footprint at all locations. 30% of the power we used at our Bend campus was offset with wind and solar power in 2019. 

    • As we’ve expanded our Bend campus to produce more damn tasty beer, our building design and construction have continued energy savings day after day. 

    • A nighttime cooling system in our warehouse maximizes our building’s insulation and thermo mass as well as cold beer off the line in our warehouse so we don’t use AC.

    • In the winter we use destratification fans and extremely efficient condensing heaters to save on natural gas.

    • Our beer coolers use Thermo-breaks adjacent to our coolers to keep heat out and insulation under the concrete floor to make the chilling units use less energy.

    • Optimized sky lighting and motion sensors helps keep lights off as much as possible and our LED lighting at the brewery greatly lowers our energy usage. 

    • Our CO2 vaporizer saves roughly $15,000 per year in electricity and helps cool the upper warehouse and can line. It also supplements 5 to 10 tons of glycol chilling for our chillers. 

  • We conserve water, saving 1 million gallons of water last year that will continue to be saved every year going forward through efficiencies and optimization of our equipment.

  • We partner with not-for-profit organizations across our distribution footprint to support healthier communities. 

  • We recycle and compost our waste at the brewery as well as pubs and tasting rooms.

  • We source local ingredients for our beers and food at our pubs.