At Alectro, we’re constantly on the lookout for sustainable and impact-driven alternatives to everyday items. This is an opportunity to share the brands that we love and that are making the world a greener place to live.
Toast Ale is an award-winning craft beer brewed with surplus fresh bread that would otherwise be wasted. All profits go to charity to end food waste.
We caught up with Kristen Fuller, Marketing & Comms Manager at Toast, to discuss their journey and the future.
Why does Toast exist?
"The idea behind Toast Ale was sparked in 2015.
Toastmaster Tristram Stuart, a campaigner on the environmental and social impacts of food production, met the brewers behind the Brussels Beer Project. They'd used bread in their 'Babylone' beer, a nod to beer's origins of being brewed with bread. With bread wasted at a colossal scale (13,000 slices per day from a single sandwich factory), here was a circular economy solution to reduce waste, engage drinkers and raise funds for charity.
Our founding principles are:
To produce great-tasting beer, that
eliminates bread waste directly through brewing and
raises awareness of the problem of, and solutions to, food waste whilst
creating profits, which all go to charities to change the systemic causes of food waste."
What does Toast do best?
"Toast Ale's mission is to brew great beers and spread big ideas that can change the world.
The food system is one of the biggest contributors to climate change and biodiversity loss, but one-third of all food is wasted.
We’re here to change that. We brew with surplus bakery bread and all our profits go to charities fixing the food system. Empowering our community of beer lovers to take positive action for people and the planet.
We are a proud B Corp (the first and highest-rated brewery in the UK) and social enterprise. We are carbon neutral and committed to being Net Zero by 2030."
What are the trends in your market space?
"We think that the craft beer market is moving to being more sustainably minded and taking actions to do more for the planet. We've collaborated with 87 breweries to date (in 10 countries), helping them to brew with surplus bread too.
Our goal is to prevent 1 billion slices of surplus bread from being wasted.
Typically, we use 1 slice per pint, replacing purposely-grown and malted barley, so it was an ambitious goal.
As a micro SME, the goal is not something we can achieve alone. We have always open-sourced our recipe, shared our insight to inspire others and collaborated directly with breweries all over the world.
We want to do more to help our industry and other food producers to embrace the circular economy.
We believe we can halve bread waste in line with Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. In the UK, we produce 4 billion litres of beer every year. Replacing 10% of the malt with surplus bread would reduce waste by almost 4 billion slices."
What's next for Toast and what should people get excited for?
"We have a good understanding of our full value chain carbon footprint. We first measured emissions in 2019 and have improved coverage and accuracy of data every year.
Most of our emissions are scope 3, so as a small business, we have limited control. We must work with suppliers to support their efforts and consider net zero in our supplier selection policies.
The actions we have measured will reduce emissions by approx. 72%. We are aiming for reductions of at least 90% with investment in removals to cover any remaining.
You can read about the ways we are planning to make this happen in our latest Impact Report here.
Beyond our value chain, we also advocate for system change. We need stronger, more ambitious net-zero targets and action at a national and international level."
You can read the full report here.
Thanks to Kristen at Toast for taking the time to talk to us about their sustainability journey.
If you're interested in finding out more, make sure to keep an eye on their socials @toastale and visit their website for updates or more information!
If your company is embarking on its sustainability journey, reach out to us to discover how Alectro's Virtual Sustainability Officer® can swiftly assist you in measuring and managing your carbon footprint.
Let us know who you'd like to see us cover next in our Brands we Love series by emailing hello@alectro.io
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