Sustainable practices are now good business sense: The key to environmental change starts with SMEs

According to Rob Wilson the world can be saved with beer. The firm he co-founded and runs, Toast Ale, uses bread that would otherwise be wasted to make its award-winning beverages. “We brew all of our beer using yesterday’s bread from bakeries,” he explains. “Bread is the biggest food waste in the UK; 44 per cent of all loaves baked are wasted. We mix the old bread in with the barley and every pint of beer we produce prevents a slice of bread from going to waste.”

As COP26 enters its final stages, the adoption of sustainable practices such as this has never been higher on the agenda for businesses. And Toast Ale’s efforts are themselves good business. It makes around one million pints of beer a year and is profitable but it does not pay its founders big salaries. Instead, it reinvests in the business and gives the rest to environmental charities fighting food waste. Its latest hit product is the COP26 case — 26 cans of beer for £89.95. For each case bought, £26 is donated to eco charities.