Abstract The aim of the Green Brewery Concept is to demonstrate the potential for reducing thermal energy consumption in breweries, to substantially lower fossil CO2 emissions and to develop an expert tool in order to provide a strategic approach to reach this reduction. Within the project ?Green Brewery? 3 detailed case studies have been performed and a Green Brewery Concept has been developed. The project outcomes show that it is preferable to develop a tool instead of a simple guideline where a pathway to a CO2 neutral thermal energy supply is shown for different circumstances. The methodology of the Green Brewery Concept includes detailed energy balancing, calculation of minimal thermal energy demand, process optimization, heat integration and finally the integration of renewable energy based on exergetic considerations. For the studied breweries, one brewery with optimized heat recovery can potentially supply its thermal energy demand over own resources (excluding space heating). The energy produced from biogas from biogenic residues of breweries and waste water exceeds the remaining thermal process energy demand of 37 MJ/hl produced beer. correspondence: Corresponding author: Bettina Muster-Slawitsch, Tel.: +43 3112 5886 71, Fax: +43 3112 5886 18. (Muster-Slawitsch, Bettina) b.muster@aee.at (Muster-Slawitsch, Bettina) w.weiss@aee.at (Weiss, Werner) hans.schnitzer@tugraz.a (Schnitzer, Hans) c.brunner@aee.at (Brunner, Christoph) JOANNEUM RESEARCH--> , Institute of Sustainable Techniques and Systems--> , Elisabethstra?e 16--> , 8010 Graz--> - AUSTRIA (Muster-Slawitsch, Bettina) AEE-Institute of Sustainable Technologies - Feldgasse 19--> , A-8200 Gleisdorf--> - AUSTRIA (Muster-Slawitsch, Bettina) AUSTRIA (Muster-Slawitsch, Bettina) AEE-Institute of Sustainable Technologies - Feldgasse 19--> , A-8200 Gleisdorf--> - AUSTRIA (Weiss, Werner) JOANNEUM RESEARCH--> , Institute of Sustainable Techniques and Systems--> , Elisabethstra?e 16--> , 8010 Graz--> - AUSTRIA (Schnitzer, Hans) JOANNEUM RESEARCH--> , Institute of Sustainable Techniques and Systems--> , Elisabethstra?e 16--> , 8010 Graz--> - AUSTRIA (Brunner, Christoph) AEE-Institute of Sustainable Technologies - Feldgasse 19--> , A-8200 Gleisdorf--> - AUSTRIA (Brunner, Christoph) AUSTRIA Received: 2010-11-16 Revised: 2011-03-17 Accepted: 2011-03-22