Stone & Wood: Collaborating with Aussie Vanlife Gatherings & supporting our Documentary
Our team at Vanlife Diaries were so stoked when our friends at Stone & Wood started supporting our Vanlife Gatherings in Australia and also sponsored our upcoming Vanlife documentary 'The Meaning of Vanlife.' Stone & Wood does so much in supporting local community organisations especially in the Northern Rivers Region, Byron Bay where we started with our first Gathering and two of our team members where born & raised in this special region.
We wanted to share what Stone & Wood is about as a brand and how they give back to their local community in supporting environmental & positive initiatives.
Stone & Wood Story
Born and raised in Byron Bay, we take a fresh approach to brewing handcrafted beer in the Northern Rivers of NSW, one of the greatest places on Earth.
As the original brewers of the Northern Rivers, we built our first brewery here at the eastern tip of Australia, in a part of the world where people enjoy having a beer when relaxing after catching a wave, catching a band at the pub or just catching up with friends. It’s that sort of place.
We brew beer for times like these. Beers that the locals, those passing through the town and the growing number of drinkers who appreciate good beer, and of course ourselves, would find simply good to drink.
Not only has it helped shape our philosophy of trying to take things slowly and keeping it simple, but the natural beauty, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and the laid back vibe were the inspiration for our beers.
For us, the way of living in this part of the world is the way it should be.
Our philosophy:
When we founded Stone & Wood, we set out to create a brewery that reflects the best of what this industry is really about - to be ingrained in the local community.
We brew beer that reflects our philosophy – something that brings to life the combination of what was great about village breweries, and what a contemporary business should be.
Traditionally, a brewery didn’t just supply fresh beer to the locals, it could also be relied upon to help support the wider community. Inspired by this, we established in 2013 our community-focused initiative ‘Ingrained’ to keep us true to our role as the local brewer and to support the people who support us.
Vanlife and Stone & Wood partnership:
We’re stoked to partner with grassroots music, foodie and surf events, art exhibitions and community gigs that share similar values and are keen to create something epic for their local community.
When we caught up with the crew from Vanlife over a couple of beers, we knew what they were on the same wavelength as us. They share our philosophy of taking it slow and keeping it simple.
We love that they are encouraging an alternate, inclusive, conscious lifestyle that inspires people to be agents of positive change for this planet through being more accountable of their social and economic and environmental impact, while treading lighter on our Earth.
We look forward to sharing stories and enjoying a few cold ones at one of the many Vanlife Gatherings, the documentary releases, here at the brewery or when we catch up along the road. Cheers!
What we do:
Green Feet:
WE'RE THE ONLY PLANET WITH BEER...
While we only ever use four ingredients to brew our beers, many other resources play their part in delivering beer to our drinkers. Energy, glass, cardboard and fuel are a few examples of the other things that come from environments to support the journey from grain to glass.
OUR GREEN FEET PROGRAM
We acknowledge the reliance we have on our Earth to enable us to produce good beer so it is our responsibility to tread a path towards sustainability through our Green Feet program. Green Feet is a company wide program we’ve been working on for a couple of years now. It’s about minimising our footprint on the Earth through striving to not only reduce, reuse and recycle but also exploring innovative practices by reimagining the ecology of brewing.
WHAT WE'RE DOING...
· The installation of 480 solar panels at our Murwillumbah site. Our reduction in grid based electricity is the equivalent to the electricity used to power 20-25 homes.
· The installation of LED lighting in workspaces. Lighting now uses a quarter of the energy, equivalent to taking 7 cars off the road.
· The installation of a baling unit which compresses cardboard and plastic waste from the packaging line into 75kg bales to be recycled.
· Our water to beer ratio (water: beer) is fantastic. Whilst the industry average is 5:1 our ratio is 3:1 (it takes 3L of water to produce every 1L of S&W beer.). This can be attributed to not only our beer being handcrafted but we also maintain our brewery and packaging line by hand, ensuring we have control over the amount of water we use.
· Our water to beer is soon to become even better since we are poised to install infrastructure to harvest the water used to rinse bottles before filling. This rinse water will be collected into tanks for cleaning and watering our garden.
· Cup Exchange, we eliminate disposable cups at events, reducing 50,000 cups from entering Northern Rivers Waste each year and work toward zero waste events.
Ingrained:
Through Ingrained, we support local grassroots causes and charities to assist in creating sustainable social and environmental outcomes. We do this through donations, volunteering, partnerships and fundraising. For us, while our main focus is to brew good beer for you good people, we are committed to brewing for the community.
We are of the belief that you can do more good by focusing your efforts and so while we continue to give one off donations, for 2016 we are partnering with the saltwater people of Clean Coast Collective and philanthropic organisation Northern Rivers Community Foundation.
We will work with Clean Coast Collective to help clean up the beaches along the East Coast while raising funds through our Festival of the Stone Tour to educate people about marine debris in our oceans.
We have supported the Northern Rivers Community Foundation for the past few years by assisting them in giving grants to Northern Rivers not-for-profits that deal with social issues in our community.
Have you ever heard of a Karma Keg? This is where we donate a keg to a local pub or venue and people pay whatever they like for the beer until it runs out, with all the proceeds going directly to the cause. Whether its the Blue Mountains District Rural Fire Services, the local longboard club or even an individual in need, our Ingrained Karma Kegs are about partnering with local businesses and turning cold, fresh beer into cold hard cash donations for people, groups and charities.
Mullum Music Festival Initiative eliminating single use plastic cups!
This weekend at the 10 year anniversary of Mullum Music Festival we will be launching #forcupssake, a cup exchange initiative where we eliminate single use cups at the festival with the goal of implementing #forcupssake at all Stone & Wood events across the country.
How it works, is drinkers purchase a cup with their beer, and either keep the cup after the festival, return it for a $2 refund or exchange it for a fresh one for another drink throughout the festival!
We are stoked to launch this as this mechanic will eliminate 1000’s of disposable cups entering landfills and commercial recycling centres in Byron alone!!
#FORCUPSSAKE!
