The entries in 2016 World Beverage Innovation Awards reflected how forward-thinking companies embed corporate social responsibility and sustainability into the core of their business operations, and how they get more involved in new projects that create shared value for businesses and societies, delivering measurable progress towards set goals.
Crowned the best social corporate responsibility initiative of the year, Change Please is a social enterprise that supports homeless people back into employment, accommodation and support with their wellbeing, bringing the voluntary, public and commercial worlds together.
As well as employing homeless people as baristas, its also sources its coffee from cooperatives and social enterprises in Peru and Tanzania, which is then roasted by the homeless, shipped by vans run on sustainable energy and served in compostable cups. Even the coffee grounds are converted into biofuel in the end and the brand wishes to be completely carbon-neutral by January 2017.
Natural Beverage Company was selected as a finalist with its Fairtrade Ubuntu Cola, which takes its name from a sub-Saharan philosophy, meaning the kindness or the essence of being human. The brand sources the sugar from around the world and gives back to global communities, ensuring the farmers are paid a fair price and have good working conditions. The farmers and workers are paid a premium, which then can be put towards the development of their communities, from setting up schools to buying medical supplies or building new infrastructure.
Ubuntu also collaborates with its distributor, Vagamondi from Italy, to help build several wells in local villages surrounding a cooperative in Malawi, where it first sourced the sugar for its soft drinks.
Also impressing the judges with its commitment to Fairtrade, Ethical Bean Coffee was selected a finalist in the CSR category and was the winner of the best environmental sustainability initiative category.
The brand stood out with its Fairtrade, organic coffee that comes in 100% compostable pods made from coffee bean chaff and other renewable materials. The innovative pods are VPI-certified and tests in municipal composting show that they can break down in as little as five weeks, which is faster than many other kinds of common food waste.
Coca-Cola joined the finalists in the category with its non-returnable PET bottles made 100% from post-consumer packages for Coke Life, which was introduced in 2015 as a low-calorie cola option sweetened from natural sources.
As part of its Better World initiative, Coca-Cola decided to produce the PET packaging only from consumer recycled packaging, significantly reducing the carbon print of the product.
BDI BioEnergy International’s Brewing a Better World sustainability initiative created for Heineken was also among the highly regarded entrants in this year’s awards.
Thanks to BDI BioEnergy’s technology that makes it possible to produce biogas from the spent grain and surplus yeast created in beer production, Heineken’s Göss brewery achieved its aim of becoming 100% independent of fossil fuels in 2016, becoming the first large-scale carbon-neutral brewery in the world.
To find out more about the World Food Innovation Awards 2017, click here.
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