Background and circular economy
Opening in 2019, Biersal Brewery is a family-owned brewing operation adopting circular economy principles.
Biersal Brewery retains aspects of the circular economy value hill mainly through the recycling of bottles and demonstrates advancing level of maturity (17/25). Their commitment to circular economy business practices is visible through their awareness of the harmful environmental impact and familiarity with the rules of the circular economy.
Drivers for circular economy adoption
The founders’ personal values and passion for sustainability combined with the envisioned business potential of a circular model encouraged the adoption of circular economy model. They also observed that people were looking for easy ways to reduce environmental impact, and were able to help them do that. The circular economy model had added benefit of gaining a competitive edge.
Circular economy practices adopted
- Solar panels for electricity generation
- Reduce waste
- Use quality local ingredients and products
- Reuse beer bottles
- Use residual barley to produce dog biscuits
- Send residual barley as animal feed
Company changes with the adoption of circular economy
Biersal Brewery adopted their circular economy model from the inception.
Barriers and challenges
Barriers and challenges include:
- Production inefficiency due to reusing bottles
- Customer awareness of opportunities to recycle bottles
- Lack of policy/regulation to drive circular economy practices
- Difficulties in getting access to government grants for their circular economy innovations
Critical success factors for circular economy
Critical success factors include:
- The vision and commitment of the founders
- Viable business model they created through environmental perspectives integrated with entrepreneurial thinking
- Support and buy-in from customers
Benefits of adopting a circular economy
By adopting the circular economy model Biersal Brewery have managed to upscale the company and have gained economic benefits as a result. The circular model has given them a competitive edge, and a less costly product to the customer.
