Northeast Minneapolis Brewery Going Solar With Beer
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Twin Cities brewery is stepping up to reduce their carbon footprint.
Insight Brewing in northeast Minneapolis will be Minnesota's first brewery to offset 120 percent of its energy usage with solar power.
WCCO's Molly Rosenblatt caught up with the owner to find out how they're making it happen.
"At Insight we'll make that change, we'll make a big change here and if people buy our beer, that's a way they can help," Founder Ilan Klages-Mundt said.
Insight Brewing opened only two years ago, and founder Ilan Klages-Mundt was already moving onto bigger plans for the brewery a year later. He wanted to make Insight more environmentally-friendly by making the move to solar power.
"We found a way that we could get solar power with no money down and lower utility costs at the same time and that was a partnership with them, IPS, and we're building a garden out in Carver County," Klages-Mundt said.
The solar garden is a three-way partnership with Innovative Power Systems as well as Xcel Energy. Klayes-Mundt say it's not just about lowering costs, he says he felt the need to help lead a movement to reduce our carbon footprint. And he's doing just that.
"The majority of people out there do think there's a problem and they want to do something about it, but we do need our elected officials to be a leader in that sense, and if they're not, who are the other leaders that will take a step up and make a change? And that's where for us it came down to business leaders," Klages-Mundt said.
Now Klages-Munt says the move isn't just about Insight, but it's also about their customers. So they can feel they're making a difference while enjoying a brew.
"It's about what's going on in the world, how do we make the world a better place, how do we do our part to make the world a better place," Klages-Mundt said.
Community Solar is a program that allows organizations like Insight to use solar panels that are centrally located in one place rather than on top of organizations' roofs.
