Drink beer. Fight food waste.

Whenever we speak about countries responsible for climate change, we often mention China and the United States. Collectively, they are responsible for nearly 43% of all yearly CO2 emissions. You might know that India is the third country on that list, emitting 7% of the world’s carbon emissions. However, this week we’re focusing on a country that emits even more than India. It’s called food waste.

Every year, nearly a third of the food we produce as a planet is wasted. That represents 1.6 billion tonnes of food, worth nearly $1.2 trillion. The monetary cost of food waste is 45.5% of the United Kingdom’s GDP, the 6th largest economy in the world! Beyond the financial cost, food waste accounts for 8% of yearly emissions, which would make it the third-largest emitter if considered a country.

It’s important to highlight that the causes of food waste differ greatly by country. In developing countries, we mostly see “food losses” which occur due to inefficiencies in supply chains, from the production of the food up until the distribution of it. In developed countries, we see “food waste”, that is food being thrown away by retailers or by consumers due to mismanagement and wasteful behaviour.

When it comes to food waste, nobody is perfect and we’re all responsible to one extent or another. In the United Kingdom, households waste 4.5 million tonnes of food every year. This represents a yearly loss of 700 pounds per household, 2.3% of the national median salary! One of the most wasted food products in the UK is bread, with households throwing away nearly a million loaves of bread every day. Let’s assume a loaf weighs 400 grams and that each kg of bread produced in the UK emits 1.1kg of CO2. The waste would amount to 440,000kg of CO2 every day and 162,060 tonnes yearly, the equivalent of 655,467,862 km driven by car!

Food waste is pervasive in the United Kingdom, a country in which 8.4 million individuals face financial difficulties preventing them from being able to afford to eat. Beyond being an environmental problem, food waste is also a social one. Thankfully, a vast number of companies have emerged to tackle the issue.

Toast Ale was founded in 2015 by Louisa Ziane and Tristram Stuart with an exciting mission to produce delicious beers, reduce food waste and fix our food system. The company uses surplus bread from the food industry to replace the barley in its beers.

Since its inception, the company has recovered more than two million slices of bread, saving 42 tons of CO2 and 252,043 litres of water to produce 1,750,000 climate-friendly beers. Beyond its own positive impact, Toast distributes 100% of its profits to charities such as Feedback, which are actively working to fix what is causing systemic food waste.

With sustainability at the heart of the company’s mission and business model, Toast Ale became a B-Corp in 2018. Looking ahead, the company is proactively working to improve its environmental performance. Having identified that its packaging is responsible for 57.6% of its carbon footprint, Toast is working to remove all plastic from its beers. Along with other B-Corps, Toast has also committed to achieving Net-Zero emissions by 2030.

Whether you’re a craft beer fanatic, or if you simply want to have a positive impact on climate change, Toast Ale might be the beer for you. At least next time you’ll wake up hungover, you’ll know that you did something good for the environment.