Community Business Hero Of The Month

Business Hero Of The Month – Bright Brewery

Bright Brewery, located in the heart of Bright, has been recognised as a Sustainability Hero Of The Month of May. This recognition is well-deserved, as the brewery has shown a genuine commitment to minimising its overall environmental footprint on the natural environment that surrounds it.

One of the most notable sustainable initiatives at Bright Brewery is solar brewing. In 2017, the brewery installed a 50kW solar system on the roof of its Great Alpine Road venue. This system was enough to power all of the energy needs when the brewery was operating on a single site. In 2023, the brewery commissioned a 171kW solar system (including 381 panels) at its Fred’s Brewery Facility, giving a combined 221kW system. This impressive solar system has generated 426,527 kWh and saved 7,712 trees over its lifetime (as at February 2023).

Reduce, reuse, recycle is also a key philosophy at Bright Brewery. The brewery repurposes many items around the venue, including old kegs as wash basins and seats, plastic kegs as bins, and pallets as tables and dividers. Bright Brewery has also rolled out a national recycling scheme for Paktech beer can handles in bottleshops across the country. Beer lovers can drop any plastic Paktech beer handles into the bins – from any brewery – to ensure that they are recycled correctly.

The brewery also mitigates its energy and water usage by brewing as sustainably as possible with back-to-back brews, which recycles the existing heat that has been generated. The Green Transport Scheme encourages employees to walk, cycle, run, or even paraglide to work instead of driving, and employees are rewarded for every commute they make without a car.

Other sustainable measures at Bright Brewery include green freight, which involves walking beer to customers when they place a small order, using brewery grain to feed cows owned by local farmers, an on-site mechanical composting machine (ORCA), and using shredded office paper for chicken laying boxes or padding for fragile packages.

Bright Brewery is a true sustainability hero, demonstrating that businesses can have a positive impact on the environment when they prioritize sustainability. We hope that other businesses will be inspired by Bright Brewery’s example and implement similar sustainable initiatives to protect our natural environment.

Business Hero Of The Month – Bright Laundry

This month we shine a spotlight on Bright Laundry.

The Bright Laundry has not only been trying to do its part by installing 36 kilowatts of solar panels (increasing its solar capacity by 300 per cent); they are looking at all other areas of the business including setting up a water recycling system and making the business being completly plastic free.

They have been thinking of innovative ways to prevent their stained and ripped bedding going into landfill by giving it to several charities to ‘recycle’ the material. These include the making of handkerchiefs to be put into backpacks for school children which are filled by the Bright Uniting Church and given to Pacific Island school children, a charity in Melbourne making bags which are filled with essentials for refugees and the local compound and RSPCA in Melbourne to be used for bedding for animals.

SUO congratulates the Bright Laundry on all their efforts and for setting an inspring example for our community.