Sustainability Series: Fostering Local Community
Throughout the month of April we’re highlighting how we at Boundary implement sustainable practices in every aspect of the brewery. We’re in the business of consumption, so it’s important to us that we try to offset this as much as possible. Today, we’re focusing on how we promote sustainability through giving back and fostering community within Bellingham and across the state of Washington! Without these communities, we wouldn’t be here today.
Reinvesting with Nonprofits
It’s always been important to us that we use our space, platform, and profits to give back to our local community, as they support us in everything that we do! To aid in this effort, we host and sponsor numerous events and nonprofits throughout the year to ensure they get the support necessary to fund their efforts. This includes, but is not limited to:
In-kind donations to various local organizations.
Donating time & effort at local nonprofit events.
Allocation of space for nonprofit events (Lets Shift Gears Bike Swap, Beer Garden events for Max Higbee Center, tabling space for various nonprofits in the garden).
Employee volunteering opportunities (Arbor Day workday with Whatcom Million Trees Project, trail workday on Galbraith).
Piano & Pints Nights
For the majority of the year, if you walk into the taproom on Tuesday nights from 6-8 pm, you’ll be met with not just beer, but lovely live music as well! Local musician and friend Paul Klein performs a wide range of music on our piano every week to help us raise money for local organizations! $1 from every pint, Paul’s booking fees, and tips all go towards the charity chosen for each month.
Throughout 2022, with the help of Paul, we were able to donate over $15,000 to local organizations such as Northwest Youth Services, Max Higbee Center, Dementia Support NW, Bellingham Food Bank, Whatcom Literacy Council, and many more! Our recipient for March & April 2023 is the Whatcom Million Trees Project! To learn more about the organization and our partnership, check out our blog post about it!
Local Food Vendors
A major part of our fight to reduce our carbon footprint and to support sustainable initiatives is ensuring we get as many of our ingredients as we can from local food vendors and farmers! Whether it’s dessert, produce, or hops, we work hard to stay local!
Here’s a (non-complete) list of our local vendors:
-Cake from Pure Bliss Desserts
-Select bread from Avenue Bread
-Hops from the Yakima Valley Hops
-Berries from Whatcom & Skagit Counties
-Pretzels from Ralf’s Bavarian Pretzels
-Salmon from Fall Line Fisheries
-Cider from Lost Giants & Bellingham Cider Company
-Select merch from Iron Street Printing
The Why
From the very beginning, our founder Ed Bennett knew that he wanted a component of giving back to the community in his business - it was just a matter of determining how. Following our first fundraiser for Amnesty International and the subsequent local fundraising opportunities that were presented, Ed and Janet began to make some serious local philosophical connections. They saw the services provided by these nonprofits as integral to the quality of life of our community and subsequently improving the well-being of Bellingham and its local economy.
“They have the slogan ‘When you choose Boundary, you choose Community’ and I’m quite proud of that slogan because I think we do have a reputation. It gets to a point where it’s challenging to support as many institutions, charities, and organizations as we do, but we do the best we can. We really are focused on giving back. I mean, we’re fortunate. We have a product - a very good product - and we can give that back, by being part of events, and being generous with what we have. I think that’s really helped as far as supporting the community the way we can.” -Ed Bennett