Green Dining Guide

In collaboration with Green Dining Alliance

 The Green Dining Alliance certifies restaurants in sustainability & offers practical, pragmatic strategies to help them lower their environmental impact. Click here to learn more

Follow Green Dining Alliance on social media:  Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website

Quick Links

EV Chargers
Paktech Recycling

Sustainable Brewing in St. Louis

St. Louis would be a different city if not for the role of beer and brewing in its development, culture and infrastructure. The area’s natural resources and environment – the combination of abundant fresh water and the limestone geography – made the emergence of brewing as a major industry possible. As the city grew, the importance of protecting water quality and safety was obvious to brewery owners and city planners. A lot has changed since then, but brewing beer remains an energy intensive and water reliant process and the Green Dining Alliance is here to help breweries become as sustainable as possible.

Green Dining Alliance beer taps at a local restaurant.

In 2012, Schlafly was the first St. Louis brewery certified by the Green Dining Alliance. Urban Chestnut, with its LEED certified Grove location (pictured in the title banner) was next in 2014, followed by Perennial and its dedication to maintaining clean water systems by diverting yeast, hop and grain sediments. Today, the GDA has 12 certified breweries in the St. Louis area representing 9 companies. In 2024 alone, GDA breweries diverted over 7,500,000 pounds of organic material from our water system and landfills by either composting it or sending the grains to local farmers for animal feed.

All members must satisfy our Core Concepts and agree to a comprehensive audit of its entire operation. Built on the LEED system, the certification audit examines energy, water, waste management, chemical use, and sourcing, with sections on awareness, education, and innovation. The original GDA certification audit was designed primarily for restaurants, so food-related questions make up a significant portion of the overall rating. We decided to broaden its scope to include the brewing process itself.

Spent grains bound for a local farm at UCBC-Midtown

Updating our certification is essential to comprehensive reports and better recommendations to breweries. Additions include questions on hop and grain sourcing, yeast diversion, energy recovery, packaging, and more. It emphasizes water impacts by looking closer at cleaning practices and chemical use. Improvements also include new quantitative measures; for example, total greenhouse gas emissions prevented by switching the brew house to LEDs. We hope these additions to the audit will help identify inefficiencies and new opportunities for savings, offer a clearer picture of a brewery’s impact, and help our members grow sustainably, year after year.

This work was supported by the Gateway Regional Environmental Fund, a component fund of the St. Louis Community Foundation, in addition to the St. Louis Jefferson Solid Waste Management District.

St. Louis’ microbreweries have been integral to the growing sustainability movement in St. Louis. Early microbrewers like Schlafly (The Saint Louis Brewery) challenged the status quo of beer monoculture in this city, not just in flavor and variety, but in manufacturing, sourcing and production. Schlafly’s commitment to use 100% renewable energy for brewing, its emphasis on local food, even the Tap Room’s location – a vacant building in a neglected part of downtown, helped lead the way. It showed beer drinkers, the public and local entrepreneurs that companies can be environmentally friendly, socially responsible and a boon to the local economy while being a successful business.

Brief look into the sustainable practices of GDA breweries

Schlafly Beer: Tap Room and Bottleworks

Tap Room : 2100 Locust St, 63103

Solar powered brewery (Bottleworks)
Provides grains to local farmers
EV Charger (Schlafly Taproom)

Midtown : 3229 Washington Ave, 63103

Perennial Artisan Ales

8125 Michigan Ave, St. Louis, MO 63111

Joined 2014
CO2 recovery
Clean-in-Place practices

Perennial Artisan Ales, joined 2014

CO2 recovery
Clean-in-Place practices

4 Hands Brewing Company, joined 2018

Highly efficient building
Hot water recovery wort cooling system

Old Bakery Brewing Company, joined 2019

USDA Organic beer
5 Star GDA chemical use rating

Side Project Brewing and The Cellar, joined 2019

Shared Brewing employee brewing collective project

Alpha Brewing Company, joined 2023

GDA Food Waste Challenge participant 2023-2025
EV Chargers by ChargePoint

Civil Life, joined 2024

Solar-powered
repurposed and recycled decor
EV Chargers - Free

Blue Jay Brewing, joined 2024

All local farm to table food by Farm Spirit
Select beer made with a more sustainable grain called Kernza

Bottleworks: 7260 Southwest Ave, 63143

First zero-landfill waste brewery in St. Louis
Provides grains to local farmers
EV Charger (Schlafly Taproom)

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company: Grove and Midtown

Grove : 4465 Manchester Ave, 63110

LEED certified building
99% waste diversion rate
EV Charger (Midtown Location)

Paktek dropoff location
Heavy focus on sustainable beer
Food waste, composting, grains to local farmers

The Green Dining Alliance (GDA) is an earthday365 program that certifies restaurants, breweries, and food service businesses in the St. Louis region for environmental sustainability. GDA helps members reduce waste through composting and recycling, banishes Styrofoam, and promotes sustainable sourcing to lower the environmental impact of local dining.

About History FAQ Support Privacy Policy

STL Beer is brought to you by the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to promoting the Greater St. Louis Region as a premier beer tourism destination.