Greenwashing… Craftwashing

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At the recent National Restaurant Association show in Chicago one of the hot topics was (surprise) the greening of the restaurant industry. The Executive Director of the ‘Green Restaurant Association’ gave an interesting presentation that included some of the basics of how his organization ‘certifies’ restaurants and how much they charge to do it. As is the case with any audience, there were skeptics in the crowd, including a representative of a newly formed ‘green committee’ of the NRA (restaurants, not guns). The two of them proceeded to almost have a throw down, with some audience members coming to the defense of the committee member and some siding with the GRA guy. In a nutshell the woman with the NRA was basically calling him a con artist and the GRA guy insinuated that any green certification coming from the NRA would be highly superficial, a marketing ploy to help member restaurants take advantage of a red hot trend spanning all industries without really making sure that those achieving ‘certification’ were really reducing waste, using organic ingredients, cleaning with green chemicals, using less fossil fuel based energy, etc., etc.

Greenwashing.

Craftwashing.

A nifty little term I created (I think) by borrowing from the term above that is loosely defined as the practice of organizations misleading the public on what they are doing for (or against) the environment while they portray themselves as environmental champions. So what is craftwashing and what does it have to do with the GRA vs. the NRA?

The trade association that represents craft brewers recently drew a line in the sand by defining what a craft brewer is and isn’t. The obvious targets were faux craft brands like Blue Moon and the what-flavor-shall-we-slap-against-the-side-of-the-barn-this-week releases from Anheuser-Busch. But, what many aren’t aware of is that some breweries that were pioneers in the craft brewing revolution were kicked out of the club because they are owned in part by larger breweries who don’t fit the definition of a craft brewery (to find out more go to www.beertown.org).

Just as the divisive discussion at the NRA presentation showed me that there will be multiple influences that will lead to a fuzzy definition of a ‘green restaurant’ is, it’s clear to me that the definition of a craft beer may be blurry in the eyes of the consumer, distributor and retailer for some time to come. Some beer drinkers don’t seem to care one lick when they find out that Blue Moon is made by Coors, others swear that they’ve had their last drop of it upon finding out that their new favorite beer is made by America’s third largest brewer.

So, the questions for you: Are there craftwashers out there? Do you care one way or the other? What’s your definition of a craft beer?

Until next time, Cheers, Eric

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