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Oregon consumes more cider per capita than any other state—suck it, Washington!—so locals should be no less shocked by internet jokes about our dangerous arboretums, coffee shops and craft stores than proudly PNW Schilling Cider’s commitment to climate neutrality. The Seattle-based cidery added a new flavor to its lineup in August, Excelsior Imperial Mango, which the company touts as climate neutral alongside its Excelsior Imperial Apple.
“If you look at our little world of cider, when we started, nobody put cider in cans,” Schilling Cider co-founder Collin Schilling tells WW. “Everyone put cider in glass bottles. Glass bottles have seven times the carbon footprint versus cans…Now, 65% of ciders are sold in cans. We led the way.”
Schilling began voluntary carbon assessments in 2021 to “benchmark and see what our carbon footprint was as a business.” After three years of tracking and reductions, the company launched what its founder believes to be “alcohol’s first and, to my knowledge, only EV fleet” and shifted to local purveyors for their inventory. Schilling says the company’s efforts offset “105% of the emissions associated with our two SKUs,” down to vendor and distributor selection, and even “the refrigeration at your home when you buy a six-pack.”
Schilling Cider partners with Tradewater, a company that captures and destroys refrigerant gases and caps orphaned oil and gas wells. Schilling stresses that refrigerant gases “can be 6,000 times more potent” than CO₂ and “once they’re there, they’re in our atmosphere and there’s no going back.”
“If we can get cider to be super sustainable… maybe that extrapolates to craft alcohol… and that will put the pressure on companies like Pepsi to make a change,” he adds.
Schilling knows true impact requires industry-wide change, but he remains set on pushing for transformation. He hopes his blueprint to climate neutrality could create a path for other craft businesses, and he’s more than happy to share what he knows with his peers.
“They know how to do it. The question is, will the consumer force them first or regulation force them first? And I am hopeful that the consumer will do it first because that’s faster.”
