Downingtown craft beer producer Victory Brewing Company added yet another award to their expanding trophy case last week.

The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) awarded the privately held brewer their 2014 Sustainable Agriculture Business Leadership Award at the 23rd Annual Farming for the Future Conference in State College on February 8th.

According to Victory’s own blog, “the honor recognizes the brewer’s long-standing commitment to sustainability, innovation and environmental leadership in the community.”

Since opening their brewery in an abandoned bakery in Downingtown in 1996, Victory’s co-founders Ron Barchet and Bill Covaleski have emphasized environmental responsibility and energy conservation.

Aside from rehabilitating a the long-vacant Pepperidge Farm factory in Downingtown for their headquarters and brew-pub, other Victory environmental projects include:

• A 345 panel solar installation at the company’s Downingtown location generating electricity used to power the brewer’s restaurant, office and production facilities.
• A new $100 million dollar, 200,000 barrels-per-year brewery in West Sadsbury near Parkesburg featuring “high efficiency lighting, insulation and recovery systems throughout to reduce overall energy consumption.”
• A recycling initiative that migrates the nearly 25,000 pounds of spent grain generated every day to a local farmer who uses the brewing by-product as animal feed all in an effort to decrease factory waste.
• A composting program initiated in 2010 that now composts more than 73 tons of food waste from the Brewer’s popular Downingtown brew pub annually.
• Victory’s own Headwaters Grant program which donates one penny from the sale of every bottle of the company’s popular Headwaters Pale Ale to organizations such as the Guardians of the Brandywine and Brandywine Conservancy.

When he presented the award last week, Brian Snyder, Executive Director of PASA, remarked,

“We are so proud of what the Victory Brewing Company has accomplished, not only for connecting consumers with the sources of their food and drink, but also for setting an example of how a sustainable business is truly possible in today’s complex retail world . . . and for giving us all a venue for celebrating our accomplishments at the end of the day!”

Read more about PASA’s Sustainable Agriculture Business Leadership Award here and Victory’s environmental project’s here.

(Above image is Victory’s co-founders Ron Barchet and Bill Covaleski accepting PASA’s 2014 Sustainable Agriculture Business Leadership Award earlier this month in State College.  Picture courtesy of Victory Brewing)