Coors Launchs New Environmental Coors Employee Group in Time For Earth Day

GOLDEN, Colo. - Coors is rolling up its corporate sleeves with Volunteer Outdoor Colorado Team to help restore Parkfield Park in northeast Denver. On Saturday, April 21, Coors employees will help plant trees and build trails in the natural park area as part of a “Coors Day of Impact,” an ongoing program that provides Coors employees opportunities to volunteer in their community. This is the largest project for the Volunteer Outdoor Colorado Team this year.

Coors employees are passionate about this effort as Earth Day also marks the introduction of a new employee resource group - Coors Active Responsibility for the Environment (CARE). The group, created and driven by employees dedicated to environmental education and volunteerism, aims to provide other employees with knowledge about what they can do to reduce adverse environmental impacts at work and home. The group will facilitate volunteer opportunities and host quarterly educational seminars on environmental topics for Coors employees.

“This Coors Day of Impact is just one of many opportunities we have to fulfill our commitment to environmental stewardship,” says Jere Zimmerman, director of environment, health and safety for Coors Brewing Company. “Coors has a longstanding commitment to conservation through recycling and reusing waste materials. Our motto was established by Bill Coors, who said, ’Waste is a resource out of place.’”

In 1959 the company introduced the first commercially produced aluminum beverage can in America at its plant in Golden, Colorado. Later that year, Coors launched aluminum can recycling when it began offering a penny for every can returned.

These days, Coors recycles more than 95 percent of its solid waste, diverting thousands of tons of materials from landfills each year. In 2006, Coors recycled 4,357 tons of cardboard and paper; 3,310 tons of glass, 264 tons of plastics and 1,107 tons of aluminum.1 The recycled content of the bottles produced at Rocky Mountain Bottle Co., a Coors Joint Venture, is approximately 30 percent. The aluminum cans Coors places in the market contain approximately 40 percent recycled content. Recycling aluminum saves 95 percent of the energy needed to produce new metal from raw materials.

Additionally, Coors has created a three-pronged strategy to improve its packaging by reducing its weight, increasing recycled content and improving recyclability. Coors’ paper packaging is 90 percent recyclable.

Through a partnership with Merrick and Company, Coors refines waste beer, a by-product of the brewing process, to produce three million gallons of ethanol annually. The 200-proof ethanol is blended with gasoline and sold throughout the Rocky Mountain region.