This article is not in reference to the St. Patrick’s tradition of dying your beer green, but instead a round of applause for the New Belgium Brewing company for its efforts to make their beer as eco-friendly as possible. A Popular Mechanics article describes their energy recycling process,

In the brew house, heat typically released as steam preheats incoming water. Temperature sensors automatically open windows to cool the building. Methane gas from an on-site wastewater treatment facility is piped to a generator, which produces enough electricity to cover 10 percent of the brewery’s needs. New Belgium purchases the remainder of its electricity from wind farms, and offsets some of its CO2 emissions by purchasing renewable energy credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange. But according to New Belgium’s sustainability specialist, Nicolas Theisen, there is always room for improvement. “We’re a partner in developing a process to use the carbon dioxide byproduct from fermentation to feed fast-growing algae in silo-shaped bioreactors,” he says. “The oil in the algae can be pressed to make biodiesel, and the rest can go into our waste treatment ponds to make methane.

The New Belgium Brewing company produces the delicious Fat Tire Ale which proudly features a bicycle on the front of the bottle. In support of cyclists everywhere, the company launched two a social action campaigns to encourage the use of bicycles in the daily commute. These two campaigns are “Team Wonder Bike” which asks members to take a pledge to ride their bicycle whenever possible, as well as the “Tour De Fat” a nationwide community cycling campaign to raise money for local charities throughout the Western United States. So if you love the earth, and you love beer, takepart and choose a brewery that strives and inspires social change for the betterment of all of us.

by Jon Moran

Bicycles are going to be one of the defining agents of change in the 21st century. Cyclists are often hip, funky, and carry an attitude that comes from the constant rage incidents from drivers on the road. They know they are doing their part to combat climate change, and laugh at you in your car. They burn calories while you get fat. They adventure while you seep in a pool of stress behind the wheel. They have decided on a lifestyle that is noble, and they are beginning to mobilize and come together to make real impacts in Washington.

Give three hip hip hoorays for the 2008 Brita Climate Ride cyclists.

The riders were each required to raise a minimum of $2250 to participate in the ride. The 120 riders rode 300 miles from New York to Washington DC. Along the route the riders stop and rally people in towns along the way for expert speakers who follow the pack. It is both a fundraiser and a climate change conference on wheels. To find out how you can takepart visit the Climate Ride

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The New York Times has got itself a shiny new, super sustainable, “technologically advanced and environmentally sensitive” office tower in midtown Manhattan. It’s got all the latest in alternative amenities”well, almost. They forgot the bike racks.

Company executives had promised that the new building would include parking for bikes, but those plans apparently fell by the wayside, leaving employees with no safe place to stow their wheels.

So Times bikers have been doing battle with the building’s security guards, who won’t let them bring their bikes into the building, or even chain them to the building’s steel girders. As the cyclists seethed, the building management tried to placate them by creating a small indoor bike parking area near the trash compactors. But it only provides 20 spaces, of which the Times can only claim 12; 8 are for employees of other companies in the 52-floor building.

The old building had room for dozens of bikes, but the new facilities are discouraging many Times employees who used to bike to work, including Jim Dwyer, the paper’s Pulitzer prize-winning reporter.

Dwyer used to commute by bike along the Hudson River Greenway from his home uptown, but gave it up when the Times moved to the new building “because of the hassle with the parking.” Looks like the devil is in the derailleurs.