This article has been updated to include the student taking part in the Brewers Association internship.
Rachel Beck will be joining the team this summer as the Brewers Association Sustainability Intern. Rachel is a senior Environmental Science student at the University of Northern Iowa. She is really looking forward working with Iowa craft breweries who are involved in the Iowa Green Brewery Certification program, saying that she is, "really excited to be a part of something that is in the process of growing and really starting to gain attention."
Original Post 01/18/2018
The Iowa Waste Reduction Center (IWRC), in partnership with the Brewers Association, the national organization for craft brewers, is offering a new internship opportunity for a University of Northern Iowa student. The 6-8 week sustainability internship will start in June 2018 and involve working with Iowa craft breweries to provide environmental and cost-saving solutions utilizing the Brewers Association’s proprietary benchmarking tools.
“We're always looking for ways we can help our clients and grow our services. With the success of our Brewery Certification in Iowa and the national success the Brewers Association has seen with their internship program, it just seemed natural to figure out how to start an internship program here at UNI.” says Joe Bolick, manager of the Iowa Green Brewery Certification program at the IWRC.
Through this internship, the student will travel to and work directly with 3-5 Iowa craft breweries to collect data in order to track utility usage and other environmental impacts of their processes. The student will then analyze the data inputting it into a program that will provide insight into potential cost savings and reduction of environmental impacts before presenting their findings to the brewery along with an implementation plan.
In 2014, the pilot study of this internship program identified areas of improvement for participating breweries that could reduce their costs anywhere from $35,000 to $235,000 for each brewery. "We are excited to have the IWRC be our boots on the ground in Iowa for our sustainability benchmarking tools," says John Stier, Brewers Association Sustainability Mentor.
For more information on the IWRC/Brewers Association Sustainability Internship, contact Joe Bolick at mjbolick@uni.edu or interested students can apply for the internship on the UNI Online Job Board from now until March 1, 2018.
About Iowa Waste Reduction Center. The IWRC is an organization dedicated to providing Iowa businesses with environmental consultation through specialist assistance and training. Since the launch of the Iowa Green Brewery Certification project in 2017, the IWRC has worked with Iowa breweries to provide recognition for efforts in sustainability.
About Brewers Association. The BA is a national organization dedicated to craft brewing and providing brewers with education and stewardship. With the introduction of the Sustainability Benchmarking Project in 2013, the BA created and published best practices and tools to promote increased efficiency within the brewing process that could lower utility costs.