Pure Michigan Beer? Tourism, Craft Breweries, and Sustainability

This chapter describes and explores the relationships between the popularity of craft beer and impacts on water resources. Is there a connection between tourism, brewing, and sustainability in West Michigan? It is quite clear that tourism impacts the environment, but there is little to no published research on how craft brewing impacts the environment or how craft breweries address sustainability concerns or create the desire to engage in tourism. Accordingly, this chapter attempts to fill these gaps by using the West Michigan region as a descriptive and exploratory case study focused on the sustainability efforts of craft breweries. This chapter uses qualitative interview-based methods, highlighting the region and foregrounding three West Michigan breweries: Founders, Short’s, and Brewery Vivant. This chapter defines and problematizes the issues of sustainability, highlighting the number of craft breweries in the region, providing the brewing context, and how West Michigan craft breweries connect to sustainability issues. Can breweries be sustainable in the face of state tourism campaigns like “Pure Michigan” and the tendencies of businesses and governments to cut corners on environmental issues?