MillerCoors Brewery Goes Landfill Free

MillerCoors Brewery in Golden, CO
Photo Courtesy of Jorge DFW

MillerCoors is the largest brewery in the nation and has recently revolutionized its waste processing system. The Golden brewery creates 100 tons of waste per year and now recycles or re-uses nearly all of it.

The revolution in waste processing was due to the sustainability ethics of one man, a factory worker from Ohio. His name is Kelly Harris who was raised in a family centered on eco-conscious living. He was instilled with the message that you only have one planet, you had better be sure to take care of it.

He redesigned the company's business plan to reduce the amount of waste generated. His plan included easier efforts to incorporate waste materials into beneficial uses, such as animal food. Harris realized that their sustainability efforts had to go outside of their immediate operations to include those processes which yielded their supplies. This line of thought led MillerCoors to work collaboratively with the Nature Conservancy in an effort to reduce the amount of water needed to grow hops.

MillerCoors' ultimate goal is to produce zero waste. They are almost there now, but still incinerate non-recycleables. This is an example of how big companies can do more to help solve or at least reduce environmental problems.

As Harris signs each email: "Save the earth, its the only planet with beer."

Yewande Adeyemo, MRLS‘12, Accepts Position at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Earlier this year, Yewande Adeyemo accepted a position as an Energy Industry Analyst at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington D.C. Yewande graduated with her Master of Resources Law Studies degree in 2012. She was initially drawn to the ENRGP's small size and the variety of course offerings.

While in the program, she focused her studies on energy specific courses and took advantage of the related networking opportunities. Yewande shared, "After graduating from DU, I interned at the Solar Energy Industry Association. I did work on regulatory and legislative affairs. This combined with my degree helped paved the way for my current position as an Energy Industry Analyst at FERC."

Yewande enjoys the work that she does at the FERC, which is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, oil and natural gas, as well as associated projects. In addition, the FERC assists consumers in obtaining reliable, efficient and sustainable energy services at a reasonable cost through regulatory and market means. As an analyst, Yewande applies rules and regulations to the analysis of cases. The work varies widely depending on the issues presented by the utility or gas company, meaning she never gets bored.

Yewande offered the following advice for other students in the program: "An internship post-graduation may be a necessary step to getting a foot in the door."

Congratulations to Yewande! We wish her all the best in her future!