Bacardi Limited's "Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future" initiative has scored another win with its eco soap for bars.
As part of Bacardi's innovative approach to sustainability, its 42Below vodka is turning leftover cocktail lemons from bars into soap. The company is collecting the used fruit and turning it into liquid soap that it then sends back to the bars to be used in their bathrooms free of charge.
The initiative was launched across Australia and New Zealand in December and 400kg of fruit waste has already been collected and turned into 20,000 sachets and 400 bottles of liquid soap.
Among the Aussie bars participating ...
Sydney:
Stitch Bar, Earl's Juke Joint, Pocket bar, Button Bar, Crooked Tailor, Deus Bar & Kitchen, Woollahra Hotel, East Village Sydney, The Collaroy, Royal Hotel Paddington, Acre Eatery, This Must Be The Place
Melbourne:
The Carlton Club
Gold Coast:
elsewhere, wherelse
42BELOW came up with the idea to cut down on methane emissions if the lemons became landfill. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a warming potential that's 23 times than carbon dioxide.
“To be honest, 42Below has made it incredibly easy,” said Christophe Lehoux, art and drinks director at House of Pocket in Sydney. “They provided the bags, they come and pick it up, then they bring the soap – we just need to put scraps aside. As for savings, since starting the program in the last couple of weeks, we have we have saved on buying at least 25L of soap.”
The campaign is supported by posters in bathrooms explaining the process.
"The nice thing about this initiative is the customers get to experience it as well. Every customer goes to the bathroom at least once while they're in the venue, so they can see the poster which explains it all and then use the actual soap - it's really visual and practical."
It's not the first time 42Below has embarked on an eco-friendly initiative. In August, the company hosted the Cocktail Earth Cup where bartenders designed eco-friendly, zero-waste drinks.
Bacardi's holistic approach to sustainability
Since first examining its environmental impact in 2006, Bacardi Limited has been working at ways to reduce its footprint and has already improved water use efficiency by 46% and reduced its greenhouse gas intensity ratio by almost 45%.
It has a goal to eliminate landfill waste at its production sites by 2022 and is aiming to obtain all its raw materials and packaging from sustainably sourced, renewable or recycled materials.
Bacardi has also collaborated with Ryder and partnered with the EPA SmartWay Transport Partnership to reduce transport emissions by using vehicles equipped with clean, fuel-efficient SmartWay Verified Technologies.
In March 2016, the company announced it eliminating straws and stirrers in cocktails at events, as plastic straws and stirrers are rank No.5 in the top 10 pieces of garbage collected in the oceans.
Goals for 2017 include reducing the weight of its packaging by 10%, reducing water use by 55% and greenhouse gas emissions by 50%.
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