The fun part of being an editor of a trade magazine is devoting yourself to an industry’s subject matter. And once you do, you start to see more of that industry all around you.
When it comes to ground support equipment, of course, tractors, belt loaders and the like are in plain sight every time you’re sitting at the gate waiting to board your flight. It would be hard to miss. But beyond that, anytime I see a shot of an airport on TV or a photo accompanying a news item, I’m trying to get a look at what GSE is in the background. I do the same thing when watching a movie set at an airport, too. It has turned into an obsession.
One place I didn’t expect to find GSE, though, was in a pint glass resting on the bar. But that’s no longer the case in southern California.
San Diego International Airport (SAN) has partnered with Ballast Point Brewing Company and water purification company Water Works to turn conserved water into beer.
The new brew, SAN Test Pilot, comes from condensation from pre-conditioned air units attached to more than a dozen of the airport’s jet bridges.
For the record, beer is just one of the ways this repurposed, purified water is used as part of the airport’s conservation efforts. It has been used to wash equipment around the airport, too. Nevertheless, GSE on tap sounds very appealing to those of us in the magazine's Wisconsin-based office.
Like I mentioned, when you’re focused on a specific industry, you start noticing it in unexpected places. But those surprises can be refreshing (apparently, in more ways than one).
