Keeping the business sustainable
7 Devils Pub House has branded itself to embody the atmosphere in which it resides in. It’s coastal inspiration, agritourism and sustainable practices are due to the owners’ and landlord’s responsibility to be sustainable. The building has solar panels on the roof, energy efficient appliances and even a rain garden. However, these aren’t the only sustainable practices going on.
“Brewing unfortunately is a pretty resource heavy endeavor,” said Pollard. “It uses a lot of water and power and so we think that we have a responsibility to ameliorate the effects as much as possible.”
To make one pint of beer, roughly 20 gallons of water are needed, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. Pollard lists a number of practices that they are executing in order to make up for this impact.
“Our spent malt [leftover grain material] goes to a local farmer,” said Pollard. “All of our food waste from the restaurant goes to a farm as well; our yeast goes. In terms of our energy, we have all the energy upgrades you can have, so the most energy efficient appliances, like low flow flush toilets. We also deliver our beer on bicycle to as many places as we can.”
The human powered beer delivery system is a unique but a very sustainable practice. Along with minimizing power use, the restaurant gets locally sourced food. The combination of sustainable and eco-friendly practices, allow 7 Devils to be an official Ocean Friendly Restaurant through the Surf Rider Foundation.
“To be an ocean friendly restaurant, you have to check off all these things off the list,” said Pollard. “One is that you are not sending things home in Styrofoam, you’re not using plastic straws, you’re not using single use plastic bags. You are trying to source locally as much as possible. I think you have to do seven out of the ten requirements and I think we are at nine.”
According to Pollard, there are only two ocean friendly restaurants in Coos Bay right now. One being 7 Devils and the other, their neighbor, Nosters Kitchen. There are nine of these ocean restaurants in Oregon, with the other seven being located in Portland.
