Staff and Infrastructure

The Tibet Lhasa Brewery Company Ltd. in Lhasa, Tibet is the world’s highest commercial brewery located at 11,975 feet in elevation and it is the only one in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The brewery is a joint venture equally owned by a domestic corporation and a Danish investment led by The Carlsberg Group, one of the world’s largest brewers. It produces 85% of all beer sold in Tibet. It is the sole source of Lhasa Beer, “Beer from the Roof Of The World.”

The Lhasa Beer production facility was renovated with the guidance of its joint venture partner, The Carlsberg Group, in 2004 and occupies 62,240 sq meters of land (15.3 acres) near Sera Monastery on the outskirts of the capital. Lhasa Beer is ISO 9001, ISO 14000 certified and has a pending ISO 28001 certification.

Social and Environmental

The brewery has 250 full time employees and 200 part-time employees, of the total 72% are ethnic Tibetans and 52% are women. All workers are paid a living wage sufficient to support a family. They have excellent working conditions that are both clean and safe. Full time workers receive full benefits including housing at below market rates, health care, and have a retirement program. The workers also have a union.

Lhasa Beer recently spent 1.395 million Yuan on the improvement of the production processes which has resulted in meeting the GB 13271-2001 atmospheric pollution standards. A water purification and reuse system has been put into place which has minimized liquid waste production.The brewery recycles the waste byproducts of spent grain, spent yeast, etc. by selling them for use in other applications. Likewise they recycle all damaged or broken bottles instead of simply disposing of them.

In November of 2007 the brewery replaced 10 older machines with 10 new high efficiency European manufactured machines on the production line which will result in a 6% annual savings in the cost of electricity. Additionally there is a plan to implement an energy saving adaptation to the production process that could save as much as 40% of the heating costs involved in the brewing of it products.