Sustainable brewing

Sketchbook has committed to decrease our carbon footprint and be kind to the planet from the very beginning. When our startup Kickstarter back in 2014 met our goal early, we asked for extra funding to support equipment such as a heat exchanger and cold water tanks. “Local brewing is already a green enterprise -- reducing transportation, refrigeration, bottling, and other pollution-contributing processes -- but the new equipment would allow us to be as green as possible from the get-go,” said one of Sketchbook’s principal owners, Shawn Decker.

In 2024 our Skokie location was the recipient of the BRITE grant, allowing us to accelerate some of our goals to become more green. We installed EV chargers, replaced our gas powered truck with an EV truck and are in the process of replacing two other gas powered equipment with electric ones. Keeping our air cleaner. Other initiatives include replacing cooler motors with more efficient ones, installing smart thermostats to reduce waste, reduce the use of plastic labels on cans, control water and electric use throughout our process and facility, sort hard to recycle materials for proper recycling.

Certificates and Recognitions

Practices

Spent grains:

We currently are repurposing most of our spent grains, saving it from landfill, and are constantly working on ways to eliminate more waste. Cheers to sustainable brewing practices! Each week, Founder and Director of Brewing Ops Cesar Marron drives about 12,000 lbs of spent grain to Hasselmann Family Farm, in Marengo, to feed to their livestock. We are working towards fully diverting grains from landfill and have reduced our waste by 99%+, furthering our commitment to sustainability and helping the community.

farm projects:

We are longtime fans and partners with The Talking Farm, an urban agriculture non-profit just down the street that shares our commitment to sustainability. We grow some hops on their farm, and use them in wet-hopped small brews each year. We also support their work by sponsoring events and concerts. We love using locally-sourced ingredients and it doesn’t get much closer than Skokie.

Reduce, reuse, recycle:

We are committed to reduce the use of plastics anywhere possible, reuse where the opportunity arises, and recycle what is left, leaving no hard-to-recycle materials to the landfill.

We have partnered with our suppliers to return pre-sorted plastic film, straps, poly bags and can handles to be recycled.

We encourage our wholesale customers and taproom patrons to return plastic handles “PakTechs” so we can wash and reuse them. In 2024 we have YTD reused 16% of all handles used in production.

We are committed to reduce the amount of plastics used in our packaging materials by switching most of our brands to printed aluminum cans. This effort will reduce 1 metric ton (2200 lbs) of plastics from ever being used.