Ahead of COP26, U.K. breweries challenge world leaders, release collaboration series

As world leaders are gather in Glasgow for COP 26, the United Nations’ annual conference on climate change, breweries in the U.K. and Ireland have a message for them: there is no time to waste.

Led by Toast Ale, the London brewery known for using surplus bread as its beers’ base malt, a coalition of 25 breweries is highlighting the food system as one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. In a letter to world leaders, Toast and its collaborators write:

One of the fastest and most equitable measures to tackle the crisis is to reduce food waste.

Food systems are responsible for one-third of GHG emissions and 80% of deforestation.

However one-third of the world’s food is never eaten, which means the land and resources used and greenhouse gases emitted in producing it were unnecessary.

We need you, our global governments, along with businesses and groups with the power to influence the food system, to come together and change the status quo.

The breweries are also collaborating on beers using surplus bread to raise awareness of food waste and funds that will benefit organizations dedicated to conservation and regenerative agriculture practices. The Companion Series is a “limited-edition collection of beers uses surplus bread to prevent food waste and reduce demand for natural resources.”

Sales from the Companion Series will raise £65,000 for conservation and regenerative agriculture organizations to protect 3.25 million trees tropical rainforests, and sequester 360 tCO2 in agricultural soils (which also store more water and support biodiversity), the letter says.

“We’re competing businesses but we are uniting because the climate and nature crisis is bigger than us all.

“To solve this systemic problem, we need systemic change, and that needs everyone who can to co-operate and work together,” the letter states.

Each of the 26 breweries created a signature beer using bread as the base malt. The beers range in style from Better World Brewery’s Kveik IPA called Puffin Can to Ignition Brewery’s amber ale Batch Hack, which uses all-English ingredients, a 1.7% eastern European Kvass from Tooth & Nail to a spicy chocolate coffee stout from Guinness.

Want to try them all? Toast is selling the entire series – along with glassware and “treats” – for the fair price of £89.95.

The participating breweries are:

Toast Ale, 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