New Belgium Brewing: Social Responsibility as a Competitive Advantage

Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.

New Belgium’s competitive advantage that is most important and the cornerstone of the company’s strategic focus is their social responsibility. Social responsibility is more than a charitable deed or cost savings, it is that way an organization uses innovation to maintain a competitive advantage. Social responsibility should be more than a campaign for publicity, but a strategic focus using innovation (Porter & Kramer, 2006).

New Belgium’s focus on environmental responsibilities is a benefit that enhances the profits of the company. The company has been successful while keeping sustainability and environmental responsibility at the forefront of their strategic planning process. In 2012 the company decided to spread its wings by choosing a second home in North Carolina. New Belgium brewery invests in efficient equipment most notably their brew kettle, which heats thin sheets of wort rather than the whole kettle and stores steam and vapor that allows the wort to heat at a quickened pace reducing the amount of primary energy used. The company’s energy conservation efforts do not stop there; their site claims that “the most sustainable watt is the watt never used” (New

New Belgium Brewing strives to reduce it’s impact on the environment. NBB invested in a wind turbine, making it the first fully wind powered brewery in the United States. NBB has also incorporated a steam condenser that captures and reuses hot

I believe New Belgium’s focus on social responsibility provides key competitive advantage to the company. According to Dave Kemp, New Belgium environmental concern and social responsibility give it a competitive advantage because consumer want to believe and feel good about the product they purchase (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2010). The consumers want to be part of the environmental and social cause. They are equally concern about environmental issues thus supporting the companies that promote sustainable growth. In 2013, New Belgium generated $190 million in revenue (Eng, 2014). Which is a skyrocket number, as it grew 18 percent in 2013 in craft beer market (Khan, 2015). It is clear that the result of growing market comes from encouraging sustainability

Although companies must create a social benefit to be called social responsibility, society has also benefited from various services and actions ⑤(Gina -Marie,

“In 1970, people said that The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits, times changed now” (Knowledge@Wharton, 2012). New Belgium Brewing and Anheuser-Bush InBev are both great beer companies which have positive corporate social responsibility. They all believe that social responsibility is the one of the most important mission of the business at this time.

Corporate Social Responsibility are actions taken by a corporation that have positive and lasting impact for all stakeholders associated with the organization, seeking to strike a balance between profits and helping to establish lasting investment in the community (Carrol, 2015). In the 1980’s, then President Reagan challenged the business community to take on more responsibility to address social problems (Carrol, 2015). Socially responsible actions can benefit local communities as well as the greater societal good.

Social responsibility is a construct of appropriate ethical behaviors, where two or more individuals, and corporations strive to provide better outcomes for the benefit of society as a whole. With such a set of meticulous structured frameworks in mind, it is fundamental to achieve a harmonious balance between the ecosystem and the developing economy. However, social responsibility is not always first and foremost on the mind of big name corporate companies – such as General Mills Inc.

I think Social responsibility has a key role in establishing a company’s business model. When operating a business, a company must contemplate the social responsibility behind their business when making their business model. Where do their responsibilities lie, what fits with their business plan, and how much investment can they really declare to their shareholders, that

New Belgium brewing company is a craft brewery that focuses on more than the just the bottom line. The company actually uses a triple bottom line approach. The company is operated by basic guidelines set forth by its creators. These guidelines are what makes the company so successful today. NBB’s relational advantages are so the source of the company’s most important competitive advantage and the cornerstone of the company’s customer intimacy strategy.

New Belgium Brewing Company’s marketing strategy has always included being socially and environmentally responsible. They have accomplished this in many ways. The New Belgium Brewing Company has a policy of fiscal transparency. This concept and practice of open-book management creates and encourages trust among its employees and customers. They also voted in 1998 to switch to wind power. By 1999 the company was 100 percent wind-powered. New Belgium was the first in the United States to switch to wind power.

The company, New Belgium Brewery is the idea came in a mind of Jeff Lebesch a bicycling trip through Belgium. Started from a basement brewery in 1991to a proper built brewery nowadays with several branches. It earned a national wide reputation of good beer as well as community and environment stewardship. The sustainability plan that concentrated on saving resources for e.g. Purifying used water for reuse and electricity from natural resources.

These growth phases tend to face challenges and obstacles. In order to minimize potential problems, organizations are developing a corporate social responsible mindset. A corporate socially responsible company is still focused on being profitable but they want to assist with making the world a better place. This creates a positive image for a company which does have an impact on its bottom line.

When a company has such a high degree of focus on environmental responsibility and sustainability in its production process, one might come to the conclusion that these will require a great deal of capital to achieve and maintain. At New Belgium Brewing they prove this theory wrong, as they attempt to lead the way by running their facilities on environmentally friendly energy sources and innovative machinery.