One blog that I tend to follow regularly is Andrew Leonard's "How the World Works" on Salon.com, and last week, I followed a link to an article on CNN about an industrial chimney that could have a major effect on global warming by reducing the amount of CO2 by capturing the exhaust, reusing the heat, and leaving calcium carbonate (think Tums!) as a by-product. Very cool!

But then I noticed a link to another article about selling green brew to Mormons. To Mormons? Since Salt Lake City is my hometown I just had to look. Low and behold Squatters, which has a somewhat acrimonious relationship with the Mormon Church due to their famous Polygamy Porter dust up a few years ago (several local billboard companies refused to put the ad up), is one of the greenest companies in Utah.

So why am I posting this in the Portland section? Well, since Portland apparently has the highest number of microbrews per capita in the U.S., I thought that maybe we could learn a lesson or two from our neighbors in a place not know for its embrace of environment policy. It is also a lesson about how small changes can produce dramatic savings as well as open business opportunities - Squatters wanted to recycle their beer bottles, but found it too expensive, so now they sell beer mugs at a premium made from recycled bottles.

So how do Portland breweries stack up? I'll have to do a little more research. But until then, Cheers!