Mandi McKay – Sustainability at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company: Carbon Accounting from Barley to Beer

Mandi McKay joined Sierra Nevada Brewing Company as a part-time sustainability coordinator — literally driving a forklift and collecting banana peels for the worm bin — and over 17 years grew into her current role as Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on what carbon accounting really looks like at one of America’s most sustainability-forward breweries, including the honest story of their first Scope 3 inventory: a 25-tab spreadsheet that took over a year to complete and left her team swearing they wouldn’t attempt it again for five years.

We get into the practical realities of carbon accounting across the full beer supply chain — from barley farmers and energy-intensive maltsters to refrigerated cold chain logistics and packaging decisions. Mandi shares how materiality thinking has evolved from their first attempt in 2018 to today, how supplier conversations are actually shifting upstream data quality, and why Sierra Nevada’s family ownership structure enables long-term sustainability bets that publicly traded companies simply can’t make.

Plus: the story behind Hop Forward — Sierra Nevada’s sustainability campaign, annual impact report, and a beer that lets customers literally taste climate leadership.

In This Episode

• How Mandi grew from sustainability coordinator to C-suite over 17 years at Sierra Nevada
• Why their first Scope 3 inventory took over a year — and what they do differently now
• The carbon hotspots in beer: barley, malt, packaging, and refrigerated cold chain
• How materiality thinking should guide Scope 3 data collection decisions
• How supplier conversations are changing upstream data quality
• The cold chain nuance most sustainability teams miss
• How family ownership enables long-term sustainability investments
• The Western North Carolina Brewery Recycling Cooperative and industry collaboration
• Hop Forward: Sierra Nevada’s sustainability platform, impact report, and annual beer