On Monday, Sep 21st, professors and master’s students in the University of South Florida’s (USF) Patel College of Global Sustainability (PCGS) working on the Pollution Prevention (P2) Program visited Florida Ave Brewing to begin an assessment to understand the facility’s operations and identify opportunities to improve resource efficiency. The P2 Program focuses on reducing environmental impacts before waste or emissions are created.
Led by Dr. Pradeep Haldar, Director of Sustainable Business and Professor at the Patel College of Global Sustainability, and Dr. Guebremichael, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor at PCGS, the visit marked the program's first stage. The team also included students enrolled in the Master’s in Sustainability Management degree. The team focused on learning how the brewery operates and collecting information to support its analysis before providing recommendations.
During the facility tour, students gained firsthand insight into different stages of the brewing process and explored areas including water and energy use, production efficiency, waste streams, and resource management. The visit highlighted the complexity of sustainability within a working manufacturing environment. Water plays a significant role throughout brewery operations—not only as an ingredient, but also in cleaning, sanitation, and other production processes. The team also learned about the facility’s reverse osmosis system, heat recovery process, and brewing infrastructure.
CEO Anthony Derby gave students a tour to understand the facility's operations.
Waste and material management were another important part of the visit. Florida Ave Brewing generates approximately 50,000 to 60,000 pounds of spent grain every four days. Rather than entering the waste stream, the material is collected and used as cattle feed, providing students with a real-world example of how manufacturing byproducts can find another use.
The visit also demonstrated that pollution prevention must be considered alongside operational and economic realities. Maintaining production uptime is a major priority for the brewery, illustrating the importance of understanding a facility’s business needs when evaluating potential sustainability opportunities.
The USF Pollution Prevention Program provides no-cost technical assistance to Florida food and beverage manufacturers due to a federal grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pollution Prevention Technical Assistance Program. The program focuses on preventing pollution at the source by helping businesses identify practical opportunities to reduce waste, improve energyand water efficiency, lower operating costs, and strengthen overall operational performance.
For students, projects like the Florida Ave Brewing Co. assessment offer a chance to move beyond the classroom and work with real operational data and challenges. The information gathered during this initial visit will support the next stages of the project as the team