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Where Are They Now? Raising A Toast to Good Beer
Over the years the Global Good Awards have celebrated hundreds of organisations for the actions they take for the environment, the community and business.
Throughout the year, we are looking back at some of our previous winners to share news of their growth and ongoing success.
This week we are featuring Toast Ale who won the Global Good Award for Best Eco-focused Small Enterprise in 2018.
Food production is the biggest contributor to climate change and loss of biodiversity. Yet one third of the world’s food is wasted whilst millions are hungry. With food waste responsible for roughly 8% of global emissions Toast Ale is on a mission to fix the flawed food system.
Using surplus bread to brew beer not only tackles food waste, it also uses less barley which in turn reduces demand for land and water, and prevents carbon emissions. But Toast’s solutions don’t stop just there. They donate all their profits to charities. And their campaigns and collaborations spark conversations and prompt actions that drive change.
In 2018, Toast Ale was not yet profitable but still donated £10,000 to Feedback, a charity that works to transform our food system. Despite being hit hard by the pandemic, Toast is enjoying a strong recovery and has now donated a further £70,000 to Feedback and other charities.
Supporting the Circular Economy
Since winning their Global Good award, the amount of bread Toast prevented from going into landfill has jumped from 11 to 96 tonnes (or 2.5 million slices!). And they have continued to partner with brands like Brewdog and Warburton’s to create unique beers such as Sliced Heist and Crumpet Table Beer – all to raise awareness, share expertise and engage an ever-growing number of customers and collaborators.
And this list of collaborators has grown. In the year running up to COP26, Toast launched their Rise Up campaign to draw attention to the different elements in the world most negatively impacted by food production. Believing food waste needs a priority place on the climate agenda, they teamed up with fellow B Corp brands – Divine Chocolate, teapigs, Hobbs House Bakery, Oddbox, Flawsome, Rebel Kitchen, Rubies in the Rubble and Cafédirect – to call for action to reverse the destruction of forests, biodiversity, water, soil and climate…..all caused by industrial food production.
26 for COP26
One third of carbon emissions come from our industrial food system and it is responsible for 80% of deforestation. Yet one third is wasted. To put pressure on global governments, Toast formed a coalition of 25* British and Irish breweries to a sign an open letter calling on world leaders at COP26 to recognise food waste as a key factor in tackling the climate emergency.
Together with the “crumb” from surplus bread Toast shared, the breweries created a range of 26 special, limited-edition beers called the Companion series to raise £65,000 for their charity partners, Rainforest Trust UK and Soil Heroes.
Toast continues to be the highest scoring B Corp brewery in the UK and has gone on to win other awards, including the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development in 2021 – achieving all this still as a team of 5 employees globally.
Louisa Ziane, Toast’s co-founder and COO, said: “We were incredibly proud to win the Global Good Award in 2018 and the trophy (a true work of glass art which is testament to the thought and work that goes into every element of the awards) is proudly on display at our Breadquarters. Being part of the community started conversations and has brought valuable connections. I’d highly recommend entering.”
To learn more about the beer that does the world of good and all Toast’s achievements, look at Toast Ale’s latest impact report.
*Adnams, Beavertown, Bedlam Brewery, Better World Brewery, Brixton Brewery, Five Points Brewery, Fyne Ales, Guinness, Harbour Brewery, Hepworth Brewery, Ignition Brewery, Meantime, Northern Monk, Orbit, Sambrooks, Signature Brew, Stroud Brewery, Tap Social Movement, Tooth & Claw Brewing, Unity BrewIng Co, Utopian Brewery, Wild Card Brewery, Windsor & Eton Brewery, Wold Top Brewery.
You can see the full listing of all our 2021 winners here.
