Spotlight: Pure Project - "Beer as a Force For Good"
On April 27, 2022, our founder Monty Hasan flew back to San Diego, California, where he had the chance to meet with one of the biggest supporters of our Custom Order Program: Pure Brewing Project.
Pure Project is a craft brewery that operates with an ethos of “pure, unique, and local ingredients whenever possible, taking care of the environment, and telling a story of the ingredients and process along with the beer itself.”
Having ordered hundreds of hats from us over the years, we wanted to know more about this brewery who is helping to set a new standard for making beer. Below is our interview with their passionate and hospitable director, Kira Bouchard.
What is Pure Project? Could you please introduce yourself?
Hello! My name is Kira Bouchard and I am now the director of retail operations at the Pure Brewing Project and have been a contributing member for five years now. The Pure Brewing Project has been around for six years now and is essentially a small but rapidly growing craft brewery located in San Diego. Our main focus is the use of organic ingredients supporting our local farms and agriculture, using…
“…Beer as a force for good.”
Why does your organization care about sustainability? Has it always been a priority from the start?
We care about sustainability because we realize the impact we have on the environment and climate change. From trucking and tractor emissions to how the soil is being treated on grain farms because at the end of the day it goes back to the quality of our atmosphere. We do realize that it may be a little more expensive, from ingredients to the man hours it takes to clean reusable containers, but it is the right thing to do.
Since the beginning our owners have decided that if they were to run a business, they would want to do it right and do what's best for the planet. As a business we feel that there is such an impact towards our community or even globally so we choose to do little things to offset that and essentially make better decisions. But like everything else, there is always room for improvement.
How does your organization go about doing things differently from the industry standard?
To start, we are very much aware of the choices we make regarding farms and emission transportation to begin with, focusing on organic ingredients and an efficient delivery system, other than that we stay away from single-use plastics as we have found a supplier that provides us with a product which is cardboard-like and is compostable since it is made from spent grains. This also means that if in any situation it is found on the road and birds scoop it up, they are able to eat it as it is digestible for them.
How does your organization’s sustainability performance compare to your competitors? What are some accomplishments your organization has made?
Even though we are a sustainable brewery, we still hold our own as seen in our impact report from 2019, our output of 2,733 kegs is not bad for a small brewery. Following this, our small changes in the way we run our tap rooms has led to 2,527 plastic bags saved, 35,000 square feet of plastic wrap saved, and also 180,000 gallons of water all in 2019 alone, as we grow and create larger connections with other like minded companies, we can only go up!
What are the challenges you face by being a sustainably-minded business?
There’s a lot but it's a good thing, it's a good problem because it keeps you thinking, when you do have your wins it makes it that much more rewarding because you're really trying to figure something out rather than just taking the easy route you know? So specifically for me I can't say too much for the brewers but for sourcing all of our ingredients because I don't source them but I can imagine just finding the farms that are really doing the right thing because we have standards for like organics and sourcing, how they're treating their land, how they're treating their employees just all their practices you know you want to make sure you're supporting a good business so that's probably a challenge that we face as a brewery.
What are the benefits in doing things your own way? What returns have you seen?
I mean other than you probably sleep really well at night, I think when customers see companies really taking effort and really trying hard to tell the stories or go about it in their practices in a more sustainable way they can connect a little better to it and they feel good about spending their dollar. Especially in San Diego, there's a lot of breweries, all great breweries, and you want to see everybody do well, but the consumers now, even more than they have before, have a choice of where they're spending their money, where they’re drinking, where they're having happy hour, where they're booking their events. So when someone can feel good about where that money goes after they've spent it I think that we’ll keep them coming back.
“One really cool thing in the beer industry is you want to see everybody succeed and you want to see everybody do better”
See how tiny this little place is 300 square feet of service area and this location alone has allowed us to expand to four more locations to be able to reach everything in San Diego County and a little further. But I think it just creates a little more devoted community customer base with our employees, I think I'm very grateful and feel very lucky the people that come in to want to be interested to work here or apply there are people who also care to and they want to work for a company that has a similar ethos as their personal life.
Why did Pure Project choose Topiku for their hats?
After clicking on your link and reading everything that was in front of my face, from the breakdown to the different infographics, even to the explanation on how the brim works! I thought to myself that this is an absolute homerun. On top of all that you are part of 1% for the Planet! Which is very impressive to say the least.
You also support your local manufacturers and it really is noticed how you are another helping hand within your community. It's just a really cool story and relatable to what I said before about where we spend our dollar essentially. It's just a great story, it's a great connection and why would you support anything else? that’s why we reorder.
So we actually one of our bartenders sent us a link to your website and was like “Hey! I think you should check this out” and that's how I even found out about you guys. So I always ask for things that are hip right now and she'll find it for me, so she found you and I took a peek.
What would you say to other businesses that are looking to become more sustainable but don’t know how? Is there any advice you would share to someone trying to live a more sustainable life?
It's worth it. It's whatever struggles you're having whether it's sourcing or anything, it is worth it because it creates a better community a better trust in the company, a better impact on our planet and it will pay off whatever you have to invest more or spend more or whatever We only get one of these places you know.
Images courtesy of Pure Brewing Project.