Craig Skinner, plant engineer for New Belgium Brewing Co., sees the craft brewer's rapid growth as an opportunity to use technology to help the environment.

"As you grow, your impact grows and trying to keep that at the same level is difficult," Skinner said. "But it also provides more opportunity for new ideas and innovation for sustainable practices."

Among its newest approaches: a more environmentally friendly canning line and a better water-use monitoring system.

New Belgium has grown substantially through the years since its beginning in a Fort Collins basement in 1991. Last year, the company brewed 712,000 barrels of beer, an 8 percent increase from the year before. New Belgium expects similar growth this year.

To its credit, environmental stewardship is among the company's core values, and it has used technology to achieve that objective. New Belgium pays more for its power generated by fossil fuels to fund wind farms in Wyoming and Colorado. The company also installed a 200-kilowatt-hour photovoltaic solar array and maintains a fleet of about 40 hybrid vehicles.

In addition, it coordinated with the U.S. Department of Energy and multiple tech firms to develop a smart grid that