WILMINGTON — Two breweries in the Cape Fear Region have received statewide recognition for efforts to reduce their environmental footprint.
Surf City’s Salty Turtle Brewing Company was recognized by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality for packaging their first canned beers using plastic that can be eaten by marine wildlife, the first brewery in the state to do so. Salty Turtle was identified as a “green attraction business,” one of 13 across the state, as part of the department’s NC GreenTravel Initiative.
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This follows a Clean Energy Leadership Award given to Wilmington’s Mad Mole Brewing Company in November.
Months after winning a national award as ‘America’s favorite solar-powered brewery’ this summer, co-owners Chris Worden, Ole Pederson, and Martin de Jongh accepted the award at a Greensboro luncheon in November hosted by North Carolina non-profits Conservatives for Clean Energy (CCE) and Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE).
“Mad Mole Brewing is a great example of a growing business utilizing solar energy to power its success,” CCE State Director Laurie Barnhart said.
Mad Mole opened near the Bradley Creek bridge on Oleander Drive in April 2018. Soon after it became Wilmington’s first solar-powered brewery when it installed 63 solar panels on its roof to provide power to its brewhouse — roughly a third of its total energy consumption.
Last June the brewery won 1,630 votes in the Brews from the Sun competition organized by national non-profit Solar United Neighbors.
