First a shout-out to my good buddy who just moved to Salt Lake City and sent me a postcard with the hopes of getting a shout-out on my blog. But this is not just a gratuitous shout-out to my friend, it's also a pat on the proverbial back of Salt Lake City, home to a strong environmental movement among responsible businesses. My friend commented on the lack of environmental responsibility of sending a piece of paper in the mail instead of emailing a digital image, but the gorgeous scenery on the postcard attests to the need of Salt Lake City to preserve and protect the surrounding ecosystem. Which it's doing, with a program run by the Salt Lake City government called Salt Lake City GREEN. Mayor Daley is doing an okay job of striving to make Chicago the greenest city in the nation, but it looks like Salt Lake City may be showing him some fierce competition.
My friend also requested that I visit and bring beer and Giordano's pizza, which is a Chicago staple (and so so good.) I swear, he's using me for the pizza, but for beer, he need look no further than Salt Lake Brewing Company, home of Squatters Pub Brewery, an SLC e2 business and 2004 winner of the 'environmental company of the year' award by the Recycling Coalition of Utah. Props to them for being environmentally responsible and conserving water in this desert region with waterless urinals. That's not the only thing they do that makes them worthy of such awards, but they have a photo of the urinals on their website, and who doesn't love a good toilet photo, really. I wonder what the urinal cakes are made of...
Enough potty humor. The brewery also uses windpower (as does a large portion of the city), which is becoming a rather popular source of power for breweries (and other homes and companies) in the Western U.S. New Belgium Brewing Company in Colorado boasts of its use of wind power, and they make a damn good beer. If someone can prove that wind power makes a better beer than other types of power, maybe more people will invest in wind power technology. As we learned from Kid Rock (see my post about Trippin'), sometimes one can only understand social issues when they relate to beer, and if that's what it takes, hand me some frosty mugs and a six-pack. Anyway, if you want to know more about how Squatters Pub Brewery is contributing to conservation and social awareness, just check out their website. And if you're in Salt Lake City, support the cause.
See? Salt Lake City really is more than just Mormons and the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. So to my SLC buddy, I take back the jokes about your recent move, and I have no fear that you'll greatly contribute to the success of socially conscious breweries wherever you live.
