In a first for Wisconsin, New Glarus Brewing has kick-started a program to use treated water from their on campus water treatment facility to irrigate over 30,000 square feet of grass roof on their new Hilltop Addition, using water that would otherwise be wasted and omitting the need to use clean drinking water. The system saves over 2,000 gallons a day, or roughly 22,000 cans of Spotted Cow.
As part of New Glarus Brewing’s commitment to conserving Wisconsin’s natural resources, they operate a Wastewater Pretreatment Facility on site, where production water is pretreated before being released to the village. “This allows us to be good neighbors and not overburden our village’s water management system,” said News Glarus Brewing’s architect and Construction Manager Katherine May, who oversaw an expansion to the Pretreatment facility in 2018.
“Our new addition is built into the hill with the grass and natural landscape pulled over the top of the lowest level, creating a very unique grass roof design. Grass roofs are a well-respected, sustainable step as they insulate the building, lower heating and cooling energy use, diminish stormwater runoff, and improve air quality. We take it a step further by using our facility’s own treated water to irrigate the roof. We will become our own closed-loop sustainable system,” added May
In the process of seeking approval for this program from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, New Glarus submitted nearly fifteen years of water quality test results, demonstrating their long-standing commitment to keeping Wisconsin’s water clean. “It’s always been our priority to brew world-class beer while taking care of our community and state,” added Company Founder, Deb Carey.
