Being a San Diego native, I was excited to attend the ‘San Diego Region SITES™ Pilot Projects Field Session’ at the ASLA Conference last October. It featured a tour of three pilot projects: a commercial landscape (HELIX Environmental Planning), a park (Cottonwood Creek Park), and a brewery/restaurant (Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens).

Not knowing too much about SITES™, I was not sure what to expect. I learned that SITES™ is a combined effort of the ASLA, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanical Garden.  Their mission is to develop voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices. (Learn more here)

While the entire day was wonderful, as a craft beer enthusiast, it was the tour, lunch and beer tasting at Stone Brewing Co. that most intrigued me. Stone Brewing Co. was founded in 1996 by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner and is one of the fastest growing breweries in America.

As we examined the sustainable design features of the project and how they achieved SITES™ credits, I was in awe. Schmidt Design Group, Inc. collaborated with Stone Brewing Co. owner Greg Koch and architect Andy Kjellberg to design the hardscape, landscape and irrigation for the outdoor patios and gardens.

Opened in December of 2005, most of the one acre beer garden is located within a storm water detention basin that accepts water from the surrounding area. Their water reclamation system prevents 30,000 gallons of waste water from entering the sewer system each day. The garden includes a natural stream fountain, a Koi pond, and year-round waterfalls within the drainage basin.

It was pointed out in the tour that, “part of the significance of the project comes from the surprising connection that visitors have to the experience of this unique outdoor environment, not realizing that it is a regional resource providing storm water and water quality improvements.”

The Stone Brewing Co. website boasts some staggering facts on its sustainability:

• Their rooftop solar panels produce about 35% of the power for the brewery and restaurant, preventing approximately 160 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere annually
• Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens is the largest purchaser of local, organic produce in San Diego County and their Meatless Monday menu prevents 110,448 lbs. of CO2 from being released annually
• “Spent grain” that has been used in the brewing process is re-purposed as a mulching tool in their garden. The rest is used by local farmers as livestock feed, and as ingredients in locally made soaps and Stone Bones dog treats.
• They compost some of their kitchen waste, for use in their garden and Stone Farms, and the rest is picked up by local farmers.

While the particulars of SITES™ are much more than I could possibly cover in this post, Stone Brewing Co.’s commitment to sustainability is impressive. SITES™ places value on sustainable landscapes, energy savings and greater human interaction with nature and Stone Brewing Co. delivers. Stone Brewing Co. is just one of the pilot projects that will help in evaluating and revising the SITES™ benchmarks.

If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to visit Stone Brewing Co. next time you are in San Diego.