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New Belgium Brewing

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Case 27: New Belgium Brewing

1) What are the ethical issues in this case?

- Ethics is a commonly used term that refers to the ideas and issues of right, wrong, fairness and justice. In regards to business, the concept of ethics refers to the ideas and issues in the commercial industry. In the New Belgium Brewing case study, there are many ethical concepts displayed. A positive ethic in regards to doing right is the company’s mindset that profitability comes second and their commitment to providing a quality product and business for consumers. In addition, all the companies’ decisions are based on a strong set of core values and beliefs that have made them shine in society. Furthermore, New Belgium Brewing (NBB), is ethically sound because they have developed their business around being environmentally friendly. NBB has developed an industry leading process to minimize their environmental footprint from recycling, clean energy sources and cutting back on their CO2 emissions. This is a very ethically sound company and continues to be successful as they continue to grow.
2) What keeps other companies from having the commitment to environmental sustainability that NBB has evidenced?

- One piece of evidence that NBB has observed that is keeping other companies in the industry from a commitment to environmental sustainability has to do with the recycling of glass bottles. NBB has attempted to develop an idea for a bill known as the “bottle bill” that would promote glass recycling by adding a deposit on purchases that would be returned to the consumer upon return of the bottles. However, other companies have viewed this as a tax on their product and see it only as raising the price of their product. Because of this sheltered opinion, other industry competitors do not favor this environmental friendly bill.

3) Are you more likely to purchase a product from a company with a strong commitment to sustainability?
- While personally don’t find myself acting in an environmental friendly way the majority of the time, I would favor purchasing products from a company that is taking great strides towards developing an industry that is environmental friendly. Resources and our negative environmental footprint as a society have become more and more harmful every decade. For a company to be able to realize this and create a business process that promotes an environmental friendly story is a company worth investing in my opinion. In addition, I believe that if a company puts the effort into an idea as big as sustainability, the result will be a company that puts the same amount of pride and quality towards their customers and products.

4) The environmental sustainability benefits of cans over bottles are well established. Should NBB make a greater commitment to cans even if it means forgoing the distinctive aspects of its bottles and the potential loss of craft beer status in customers’ perceptions?

- NBB has considered the idea of switching to cans because consumers tend to recycle cans more than bottles and there for the ending impact is more recycled product. However, the great argument against this is that consumers believe products from a bottle have a better quality than a product from a can. I believe that in regards to environmental sustainability, if New Belgium Brewing chooses to stay with their bottle production, more effort should be put into the idea of the bottle deposit program. While this isn’t an industry favorite, this would allow NBB to accomplish their recycling goal and keep their customers happy with a quality bottled product.
5) Are New Belgium Brewing’s Core Values and Beliefs sustainable? Or, will the company be forced by competition to revert too many of the traditional practices of other brewers?

- NBB has a strong set of Core Values and Beliefs that have led this company to great success and developed a strong business that has a proven following of customers. Whether or not these values and beliefs are sustainable depends on the strategic goals and growth of the company. If the New Belgium Brewing chooses to compete on a larger scale with other larger producing breweries such as Anheuser-Busch, SABMiller, Heineken International and Carlsberg which took over 50% of the market sales in their respected industry, the company may have to adjust their sustainable outlook in order to compete. However, in their current market and company size, I believe the NBB’s current values and beliefs allow them to continue to be an environmental sustainable company.

References
Carroll, A. B., & Buchholtz, A. K. (2012). Business & society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management (8th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

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