At the beginning of the week we asked if your beer was green. This post is about how you can be green with your beer!

Most of us don’t usually think of beer as an earth-friendly alternative to improving our gardens and lawns or dealing with a host of pests. However, if you can bring yourself to part ways with your favourite brew, or at least invest in some of the cheap stuff, you’ll be surprised by beer’s many uses.

1. Trap slugs and snails: Place dishes or jars of beer around your garden, especially in the evening. In the morning, the slimy critters, which have been drawn by the beer’s aroma/fermentation, will have drowned. The beer can be reused until it evaporates for garden pest control.

2. Trap fruit flies: If you keep a compost pail in your kitchen, you will also likely have fruit flies. Just place a jar or can of beer on the kitchen counter. Cover the top with plastic wrap or paper, leaving a small opening for the flies to get into. The fruit flies won’t be able to get back out.

3. Distract bees and wasps from your outdoor gathering: Beer placed in cups around the outskirts of your picnic or barbecue will attract bees and wasps. It’s not a long-term wasp control tactic; it’s more like placing difficult relatives at the furthest table.

4. Get rid of mice: If you don’t have a cat, a small amount of beer placed in a pail will help take care of a mouse problem, especially if you prefer to capture mice in a humane fashion. Just put an inch or so of beer in the pail, place some type of ramp, such as a piece of wood for the mice to crawl up. The mice fall into the pail and then you can remove your inebriated mice to some place outside.

5. Cockroach trap: Put a piece of bread soaked in beer in a jar. Put Vaseline around the lip of the jar. Roaches are attracted, get in, and can’t get out.

6. Fertilize your gardens: The sugars in beer are also enjoyed by your garden vegetables and flowers.

7. Fertilize your indoor plants: Yep, they like beer too. You don’t want to overdo it with indoor plants since they are contained and not subject to the cleansing distribution of rain. Use flat beer, just a small amount at the base of the plant.

8. Get rid of brown spots in your lawn: The acids in beer kill off fungi and pests, and the fermented sugars feed the grass.

9. Stain removal: Instead of pulling out a chemical cleaner when you’ve dribbled tea or coffee on your clothing or rug, soak the stain in beer. Let the beer sit for awhile then dab with a clean cloth. Wash well with soap and water once the spot has soaked. Always spot-test the fabric first.

10. Spruce up wooden furniture: Rub flat beer gently onto furniture using a soft cloth. The beer will help restore some of the polish and colour.

11. Clean gold jewellery: Similar to how you would use commercial gold-cleaning chemicals, just place your gold jewellery in a dish of beer. Let it soak, then remove, rinse, and gently polish with a dry cloth.

12. Polishing brass pots: Using a soft cloth, gently rub beer onto the pot. Let the pot sit for awhile, rinse, and dry with another soft cloth. The acids in beer work wonders on most metals.

13. Loosen rusty bolts: Using beer to loosen bolts is a bit “Macgiver-ish”, but the acids in the beer may dissolve enough rust to allow you to get them loose.

14. Insulation: Lastly, for the truly adventurous and creative, if you use full, unopened cans of beer in construction of walls, the beer absorbs the cold and won’t freeze in temperate climates (due to the alcohol content).

There is a lot of pressure from consumers on big companies these days to go green. So why has the environment been a big green blind spot in brewery marketing?

The Canadian beer industry is known for their model of recycling efficiency, however the vast amount of water used in the manufacturing process and large amounts of fuel required for transporting, are not to be bragged about to advocates of green living.

It wasn’t until this year that Canadian Beer brands have begun to step up.

In April, Labatt’s Alexander Keith’s beer unveiled its Keith’s Green Initiative, whereby drinkers who purchased a specially marked case of the brew and then logged on to the brand’s Facebook page could help drive a total of $75,000 in donations to one of four environmental charities.

Next week Molson Canadian will wrap up its Red Leaf Project , a summer-long volunteerism initiative involving shoreline cleanups, tree planting, and the restoration of urban parks across the country.

Many large breweries claim to be waiting for market research to come in, to evaluate what is important to their consumers before making any drastic changes. However, a number of small craft brands have already made deep commitments, driven as much by their handmade aesthetic as by admiration for green heroes.

In downtown Toronto, the operations of Steam Whistle Brewing use a host of environmentally friendly services, including the alternative energy provider Bullfrog Power, deep lake water cooling provided by Enwave, steam heating, and a proprietary green bottle of thick glass that can be refilled up to twice as many times as the industry’s standard bottle. In 2007, it began telling customers about these green initiatives. And a few months ago, it introduced a new truck to its vintage fleet, a 1958 Chevy Apache dubbed “Retro Electro,” that had been retrofitted to run on electric power.

Some U.S.beer companies are going even further in embracing sustainable practices. In the fall of 2009, a pair of entrepreneurs opened Mother Earth Brewing in Kinston, a city of about 23,000 in eastern North Carolina whose downtown needed some tender loving care. They bought a few city blocks and renovated the existing buildings with a sharp focus on the environment, using a combination of blue jean insulation and soy-based spray foam insulation, installing a six-kilowatt solar array on the roof that provides enough energy to power their tap room, and constructing a cistern that captures rainwater for use in irrigation, toilets, and watering plants.

So the future of beer is starting to look greener. Hopefully the trends of those currently pursuing environmentally friendly initiatives will encourage others to do the same.

The Ontario Clean Energy Benefit (OCEB) is helping Ontario families, farms and small businesses through the transition to a cleaner, modern electricity system. Thanks to the OCEB, Ontario families can expect stable bills this summer and fall with 10% off their monthly electricity bills.

All families, farms and small businesses that receive an electricity bill are eligible! A typical residential consumer will see annual savings of approximately $153.60!

The OCEB will be automatically added to every eligible consumer’s bills for the next five years. For those who haven’t yet received the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit, your local utility will ensure it is applied retroactively to January 1, 2011 on an upcoming bill.

Visit http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/en/energy/index.php?page=oceb for more information

When the time comes to choose an insulation contractor for your home, you will find that there is no shortage of companies and contractors available. Therefore, it is important for you to do your research before making your selection. There are a lot of contractors out there that will do a fabulous job of talking the talk; however, walking the walk is an entirely different story.

These images were recently brought to the attention of a Great Northern Insulation Sales Representative by a homeowner in London, Ontario. This homeowner had hired a local contractor to complete a retrofit job with spray foam insulation. The company that performed the installation advertised their solution as an air seal, vapour barrier that fills all cracks.

The images show the completed work. Note the staining left on the outside brick and the questionable installation techniques. Insulation experts know that retrofitting these walls with a cellulose drill and fill would have been the proper choice under these circumstances.

When choosing someone to insulate your home, do not become victim to flashy sales pitches. When you do your research, find a company with real knowledge, and the experience to back up that knowledge. Hire someone that will do the job right the first time. At GNI, we back all of our work with a Customer Promise that includes a money back warranty, a product warranty, a sustainability warranty, and a satisfaction warranty. We value your business. Let us prove it to you.