There is an increasing market for greener things; locally reared meat; locally grown veg & a frown upon spring onions flown in from Mexico when they can be grown here.   Of course marketing types know this & apply the greenwash to everything & anything to ratchet up the profit margins.

I agree with CAMRA's LocAle campaign mostly - local breweries keep jobs locally & help hold back the clonetown syndrome blighting most towns - but is a beer brewed locally better for the environment?  

Mass producing beer in a megafactory near Birmingham would be the most energy & resource effective way of brewing, but that idea is repugnant to most people who enjoy beer (rather than enjoy the effects of beer). 

So is the small brewery on the industrial estate on the outskirts of town any better?   First the malt is harvested in the East Anglia, then malted in Wiltshire, then delivered by truck to the brewer in Blackburn who then buys hops from Kent & Germanyⁱ before brewing & selling beer to the surrounding pubs as LocAle.   Where do you measure the beer miles from?   Surely Shepherd Neame, Wadworth or Greene King are amongst the greenest breweries from that perspective, being in an area where the ingredients grow?

Beer is an energy intensive product: harvest the barley, then dry it in an oven; Wet the barley to malt it, then dry it in an oven; Heat the water for a mash; Boil the wort.   There is no way round it.   The most efficient breweries are the megafactories producing the national brands.

Buy local to keep your area distinctive & keep clonetown at bay for another year, but don't let anyone kid you its green.