Ian says: 鈥淚 genuinely believe that business can be a force for good. The ethos and practices embodied by the B Corp guidelines are things we would strive towards as a responsible employer and producer, even if B Corp didn鈥檛 exist. But the rigorous processes and careful thinking we must evidence in order to be certified are a brilliant structure we can use to guide us.”

What does B Corp mean for 黑料大事记 Organic booch drinkers

黑料大事记 Organic has recently embarked on its fourth year as a B Corp 鈥� a certification we are very proud to have achieved. Being a B Corp is all about using business as a force for good for all 鈥� something that really resonates for our business.

Renewable energy 鈥� as part of our B Corp certification, we are committed to using 100% renewable energy. Producing great, authentic kombucha uses quite a lot of energy, so it鈥檚 important that we choose our power responsibly from renewable sources.

Plastic packaging 鈥� throughout our operation we seek to minimize the use of plastics. This can lead to big decisions, for example, we have discarded a number of new product development ideas simply because the would require plastic packaging. Our efforts to continually reduce plastic use are ongoing and I鈥檓 delighted that our new cans, which will launch in a few months鈥� time, will remove one of the last plastic elements from our packaging

Organic 鈥� as a business we try to look at our impact holistically. We believe gut health goes hand in hand with soil health and so we choose to make our products using high-quality, totally organic ingredients.

People 鈥� to make a great product you need great people. Our people are the magic ingredient that makes our kombucha stand out from the crowd. Their knowledge and dedication are unrivalled and we鈥檙e committed to their continuous development through our 黑料大事记 Leadership Labs which are designed to promote the quality culture within our organization.

If you鈥檙e interested to find out more about 黑料大事记 Organic鈥檚 B Corp commitments, there鈥檚 an t compiled by our brilliant Sustainability Lead, Genevieve, who works closely with the whole team at 黑料大事记 HQ.

You can also find your local B Corp businesses on this

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(Genevieve) When we at 黑料大事记 Kombucha set out on our journey to become a B Corp, we knew that this was a framework we could use to redesign our business from the inside out. We wanted to join a global community of ethical businesses, who are asking the difficult questions of our times and working collaboratively together to find solutions in our local and national contexts.

For 黑料大事记, our B Corp certification is just the beginning in our journey towards true sustainability in our business and for our community. We feel that it is important to continuously assess the key areas that we as an ethical, organic living drinks brand can influence and create positive impact within.听

For example, we have always produced our drinks in glass and aluminium due to the complexity of the plastic recycling process. But when we started to look at the carbon footprint of glass vs. plastic, we can clearly see that glass production, recycling and waste have a much higher carbon impact than the same process for plastics. This is a complex issue that involves consumer perception and education, as well as operational decisions that impact the cost of goods and cost to produce our products. Ultimately, we have decided to stay with glass and aluminium due to the fact that in Europe and the UK, the recycling processes are pretty advanced and we are confident that less of our packaging will end up in landfills. This is a decision that feels right to us as a business and in alignment with our company values. If we were looking at this from a pure carbon perspective or through a cost price lens alone, we may have been making a different decision. But this is B Corp for me – we make decisions based on the needs of all our stakeholders, not just the needs of our bottom line. The two are inextricably linked of course.

True disruption takes collaboration

We pride ourselves on being a 鈥榗hallenger brand鈥�, which means we strive to maintain the highest levels of transparency, sustainability and ethics that we are able to as we grow. Our mission is to disrupt the soft drinks market with the very best organic, sustainable drinks possible. However, 鈥榙isruption鈥� is an easy word to say and not as straightforward to implement. Human behaviour takes time to change and is complex. Therefore, it would be arrogant to assume that one brand can be solely responsible for larger system shifts. But each of us can play our part. This is why we choose to partner with other positively 鈥榙isruptive鈥� brands, like B Deals, who offer different sustainable solutions to our customers and communities.听

People want to be offered new, ethical and sustainable alternatives to traditional products and services, but we need to make it easy for them to find these and understand what makes one offering truly sustainable and impactful, and another simply 鈥榞reenwashing鈥� or nice marketing speak. B Deals is a great example of a platform that both showcases ethical brands and B Corps, as well as has the potential to be disruptive in terms of connecting like-minded and like-hearted brands together to innovate around social and environmental issues.听

B Deals听

(Jonas) BDeals was founded with the goal to spread the word about B Corporations, their missions and the global movement as a whole. This has become our main goal and mission after we found out that although the B Corp community is growing significantly, it is not always very well known outside its own circles. A shame, because apart from the sustainability aspect, the intensive collaboration between B Corporations, in combination with the strong sense of community among them, offers many great (business) opportunities.

To achieve our main goal, we believe it would be best to unite B Corporations and bundle their unique missions and stories into one simple business concept to have as much impact as possible. Many ideas came along during our 鈥榠nitiation鈥� phase: from B Corp loyalty programmes to central commercial B Corp websites.听

During this phase however, both of us (Jonas and Floris) were still students at university with time and budgetary constraints. As a result, we simplified our business ideas and simply put all B Corp products we knew in a left-over pizza box and that is how BDeals was born. With a slightly better box, we travelled through the Netherlands and visited a ton of B Corporations. Here, we pitched our idea for a B Corp-only gift company and started building our network of B Corp Partners.听

Today, we have partnerships with 14 B Corporations, ranging from food companies, like Tony鈥檚 Chocolonely and Farm Brothers to Mini-wallet producer Secrid and impact crowdfunding platform Lendahand. Our partners are very diverse, both in terms of size as well as in the products/services they offer. As a consequence, their purpose and their stories also differ from one another, which is exactly what we look for.

We are happy with what we have achieved so far, but we aim to make much more of an impact and like 黑料大事记 Kombucha, we consider ourselves a 鈥榗hallenger brand鈥�. We operate in a very saturated and mature market with fierce competition where fundamental change can be hard to implement among established and more traditional players.

However, when it is one鈥檚 goal to bring about fundamental change, it is crucial to collaborate with as many true disruptors, like 黑料大事记 Kombucha, as possible. We therefore consider our gifting business as a means to an end. It is our ultimate goal to set up a large-scale B Corp marketplace where aligned B Leaders and B Corporations can do business together and support one another for the greater good: creating positive impact.

For now, we continue to expand our network of like-minded people that use business as a force for good and look for ways to come one step closer to reaching this ultimate goal.

Genevieve Boast has an extensive background in mainstream media and entertainment and specialises in the fields of change management, corporate social investment and cultural transformation. In 2018, Genevieve started working at 黑料大事记 Kombucha as a sustainability professional and storyhacker where she鈥檚 responsible for embedding ethical, regenerative principles into the DNA of the organisation.

Jonas van West is a recent MSc Finance & Investments graduate with a passion for social, regenerative entrepreneurship. In 2021, Jonas co-founded BDeals, a sustainable gift company that only works with B Corp Certified companies and products. It is BDeals鈥� ultimate mission to set up a large-scale deal platform where aligned leaders and companies can do business and support each other for the greater good: creating positive impact.

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In this written conversation, Greg Pilley (MD of Stroud Brewery) and Genevieve Boast (Sustainability & Story @ 黑料大事记 Kombucha) explore some of the key trends in ethical drinking and how they are engaging with these as B Corps.听

The impact of the pandemic听

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鈥�Greg, the last few years have brought lots of uncertainty to communities across the UK and the world. With the pandemic restrictions, it seems to me that our human need for regular social connection and for meaningful social relationships has become more important than ever before. How have you seen this evolve given that Stroud owns a bar that could be seen as a hub for real human connections!鈥�

Greg

鈥�The pandemic, and measures to manage it have hit hospitality the hardest – exactly because these are the places that people meet, mix and share.

As a B Corp Brewery, with sustainability steering our business development, we have always prioritised our on-trade sales. The pubs and bars we deliver to directly, just a short distance away, with beer served from casks and kegs which are constantly recycled, represent low drink miles, almost zero packaging and great social benefit.

It is the importance of our social life that the pandemic has served to emphasise, in their absence, and also in our shared challenges. This has re-enforced for us the crucial role that pubs and hospitality have as loci of community, where community connections are made through conversation and shared听endeavours.

We increasingly value time with family and friends. And for our sustainable future we recognise the need to reduce our consumption, to detach our identities from the things we buy and own to the things we say and do with others – our relationships. I believe we will see a proliferation of new social venues. Of course the traditional pub is here to stay, but it’s clear there is a need for inclusive community spaces.鈥�

Genevieve

鈥�I agree. We have seen a massive uplift in people buying our Kombucha over the last 12-18 months as a low-no alcohol alternative drink that is suited to social occasions and celebrations. And there has definitely been a cause for celebrations as we have started to re-open in the UK!听

We have also noticed that consumers are now actively seeking brands who really live their sustainable values, (such as organic, B Corp, locally sourced etc) to support their purchasing decisions. We are getting more engagement from people asking intelligent questions about our packaging, our ingredients and our production methods than ever before.听

It鈥檚 almost like lockdowns have given people the space to consider some of these important sustainability issues and make some new decisions about who they buy from and why,鈥�.听

Greg

鈥�The pandemic has changed the way people shop. People are looking for quality, provenance and the right values. When the supermarket shelves were empty, people questioned why, and where is their food coming from, connecting them again with small businesses and usually ordering from them online.鈥�

The changing consumer landscape

Genevieve

鈥�Consumer behaviour and drinking trends in the UK are definitely transforming. Social and environmental pressures mean that traditional drinks such as fresh juices and high sugar beverages are no longer the natural first choice of consumers. In September 2020 we conducted a piece of consumer research using a sample of 2000 UK customers to understand how their purchasing behaviour had changed over the pandemic.听听听

• Whilst over 50% of people still were focussed on fruit juices and alcohol as primary drinks products, 37% were interested in healthy soft drinks and a further 27% in healthy mixers
• 41% of the participants considered their health and wellbeing to be an essential part of their considerations when purchasing
• 39% of people were trying to shop and eat more healthily

This demonstrated how much potential there is currently to reach interested consumers looking for healthier alternatives to traditional beverages and the shift in perception around traditional drinking habits that has occurred over the pandemic.鈥�

Greg

鈥�At Stroud Brewery, our taproom does have a grand bar, and it may seem like an altar to beer, however it is a serving space for the great diversity of our customers’ preferences. and we pride ourselves as a community resource.

We have an organic and /or local sourcing policy and have a fantastic range of teas, coffees, soft drinks and increasingly popular, kombucha, which with its sparkling fresh acidity is an uncompromising and health giving alternative to a glass of wine or cider.鈥�

The true cost of quality, ethical products听

Greg

鈥�We are a dedicated organic brewery. We believe the organic standards are the best basis for a high quality product that doest least harm to the environment. Organic farms do not use听 artificial fertiliser or pesticides, and have the on the farm compared with any other farming practice.

This comes at a cost. Or rather organic products are not 鈥渟ubsidised鈥� by external hidden costs associated with their production such as loss of insect life, mineral and soil depletion, the cost of cleaning and phosphate of our waterways by water companies which and is ultimately paid by us in our water bills.

So there are costs, they are not directly built into the product, but we end up paying听 for them later, but the producers benefit from lower costs and higher margins.

If we want to change the way we live in our world, then the most powerful thing we can do is spend our money with conscious businesses doing their best to do good.鈥�

Genevieve

鈥淭his is such an interesting topic given the current rate of inflation. The true cost of being a B Corp is hard to quantify but essential if we are to educate consumers on the benefits of ethical, organic, products. We are passionate about creating healthy, living, organic kombucha as every day, delicious alternatives to traditional drinks. We craft brew authentic, living kombucha the traditional way which means that all our drinks contain living, health-promoting bacterial cultures, and organic acids that help to support a healthy gut and a healthier lifestyle.听

All of this however does contribute to the complexity of our production processes, and the overall cost of our organic ingredients. This is an interesting message to communicate to people right now, especially when we are asking them to try our drinks over cheaper, less sustainable alternatives.鈥�

Behind and beyond B Corp

Greg

鈥�How do we know how well a business is performing in its responsibility to people and planet? In a world of greenwashing it is easy to make claims that exceed your actual impact. Planet saving, earth conscious, regenerative sound great but they are unquantifiable.听

This month the B Corps Behind the B campaign aims to bring back that trust. B Corps and organic have well defined standards and rigorous assessment. The organic standard is .

Organic standards are largely environmental and welfare standards whereas B Corps is more holistic encompassing social and corporate responsibilities, with an emphasis on continuous improvement. It’s inspiring, it’s human nature to want to do better and as a B Corps movement a vision for best practice is rapidly unfolding.鈥�

Genevieve

鈥�Totally. When we began our B Corp journey, we decided to utilise the BIA framework as the foundation for really living sustainable values inside our organisation and outside in our products and social / environmental impact. We are fond of saying we aspire to be both 鈥榯hought and deed leaders鈥� which is easier said than done.听

These times of massive transition that we find ourselves living through are challenging us at every level to walk our talk and come together in partnership with other like-minded and like-hearted brands to ask the difficult questions and find solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems together. For me this is the power of B Corp. The fastest growing sustainable business community on the planet that is unafraid to challenge the status quo and seek new ways of having a positive impact on people, planet and prosperity for all.鈥�

Greg

鈥�Although exciting it is more work, it asks you to step away from the day to day to consider things differently, and that comes at a commercial cost, and for a small business in the hospitality world that is a challenge, but it is a challenge that our drinkers support us for, as well as drinking a great tasting beer – Change is Brewing!鈥�

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But as a B Corp, this kind of message doesn鈥檛 really fit with our ethos. We proudly produce premium craft kombucha, brewed in the authentic way to ensure that it contains healthy, living bacteria and antioxidants that nurture human health. This, plus the fact that we source high quality, organic ingredients from ethical suppliers, means that we place a high value on both our products and the people and processes that go into making them special. To push our intelligent customers and fans to buy our Kombucha at rock bottom prices once a year just to capitalise on sales, seems a little disingenuous to us.

However, at the end of the day, we are also still a consumer brand and wouldn鈥檛 be sustainable commercially or ethically if we didn鈥檛 encourage people to try, buy and support us by repeat purchasing our delicious booch. So how do we square this circle back to our own purchasing behaviours? These are some of the values that we share as the 黑料大事记 Family that also align to how we produce and communicate as a business.

Real is better

In a global economy where 鈥榢nock off鈥� replicas have become the norm, we believe that researching 鈥榬eal鈥�, authentic products that are craft made by small or local suppliers adds value to a purchase. When we buy goods like this, not only are we voting with our purchasing choices and where we choose to invest our money, but we are often supporting smaller producers and suppliers who work hard to create unique and special items that we cherish more than mass produced goods. At 黑料大事记, this is one of the reasons that we brew our organic drinks the traditional way, to ensure we sell 鈥榬eal鈥� kombucha that comes with real and tangible, health benefits. We believe that real products are better than cheaper imitations!

Less is more

In times when resources are short, we believe that buying the things that truly matter, less often, generates a higher return of joy and health. When we take the time to consider what we really want and need, (or what our bodies really need), we purchase the things that enhance our lifestyle and create a healthy ecosystem inside and out. At 黑料大事记 we have found that once we start to really listen to our body, mind and soul, the things we choose to buy reduce in volume and increase our sense of gratitude and wellbeing.

Ethics are essential

These are times of massive social and environmental transformation. And living through them is challenging for us all. Over the last few years there has been a massive upsurge in businesses across the world, choosing to lead by example and become part of wider movements such as B Corp, that uses business and commerce as a force for creating 鈥榞ood鈥�. Taking the time to understand the living ethics of a brand 鈥� the values and processes that they implement vs. those they just talk about 鈥� allows us to consciously choose which businesses we are supporting through buying their products and services. It also helps us to better understand what truly matters to each of us as a conscious consumer and how our ethics drive our behaviour.

So, whatever you choose to purchase this month or holiday season, we ask you to take a few moments to consider what items and experiences contribute to your personal wellbeing and the wellbeing our society and our planet. Choose to purchase only those that align to your values and ethics, and you will feel better on the inside, whilst creating positive change on the outside!

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As a family we sat down and discussed this with them, deciding collectively that the most important things to us were the experiences that we shared together and the adventures that we had. Ever since then, our Christmas gifts to each other have been experiences instead of things.

Experiences, create memories.

Memories create connections.

Connections create opportunities.

Opportunities to grow, meet new people, try new things and build our confidence through direct life experience.

Translating this into my role and work at 黑料大事记 Kombucha where I am responsible for our people, sustainability and story, this year has been both challenging and rewarding. We are a consumer goods brand, albeit one that produces healthy, organic, living products, so selling 鈥榯hings鈥� are the heart and core of our business model.

Conversely, how we choose to do business, connect with our people (our staff, our community and our customers) and work with our suppliers creates the experience of working at 黑料大事记. This builds the foundation of who we are and why we exist as a business. How we treat each other and everyone else is the central mission and the way of working at our company.

Our mission is to disrupt the soft drinks market with healthy, organic, award winning, living Kombucha 鈥� providing people with a new experience of health and wellbeing through the choices they make, the products they consume and the companies they support.

We are a B Corp because we believe that business can be a 鈥榝orce for good鈥� in our local and global ecosystem and the people who buy from us can have a positive experience in the process. Beyond just pretty words, this means that we take the time to really involve and listen to our employees, our local community and our customers. We can then listen to their feedback and adapt our ways of working.

The 黑料大事记 experience goes far beyond our Kombucha but definitely starts here. When we choose to drink it or indeed consume other healthy, organic, ethical products, we are choosing a journey towards holistic health and wellbeing that ultimately creates a new experience of life, if we stick with it.

This Christmas, why not consider gifting yourself and others experiences that help them to grow and become healthier 鈥� mentally, emotionally and physically? 2020 has been a year where we have all had to focus on the health of our individual, social and environmental ecosystems, so let鈥檚 embrace companies and products that put health and collective wellbeing at their core.

Why not start with the B Corp community of businesses?

Or perhaps take more time than usual to consider which companies you wish to support through your purchases?

This choice in and of itself is a new experience.

Let鈥檚 make our experiences count this year.

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September was a big month in our business. In addition to launching our new River Cottage range with Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, we certified as a B Corp and couldn鈥檛 be prouder. But that is just the beginning!

Our journey to certification began in May 2019, when as a business we decided to take our sustainability and ethics a stage further and integrate it into the DNA of our culture and business practices. In the 9 months it took us to submit and prepare for our certification, we experienced massive growth cycles, floods in our local Calder Valley (and warehouse!) and then COVID-19 lockdowns. B Corp and its framework for putting stakeholders at the core of our business decision making brought us closer together as an organisation and allowed us to connect more deeply to the true needs and wants of our community and customers as the pandemic has continued.

It allowed us to have truly meaningful discussions around environmental practice, diversity and inclusion in our local context (especially in light of the Black Lives Matter protests) and holistic health and wellbeing relating to our products and ethos. In times of crisis, real values arise and are lived as we problem solve and co-create together.听 Over 2020, we have realised that at 黑料大事记, two values that form the core of our ethical DNA are those of inclusivity and care. Care for each other, care for our community in Calderdale and care for the environmental ecosystem within which we do business.

Looking to the future

Each year we take the time to ask and listen to what our people, our community and our customers really care about. Our annual Future Trends survey helps us to listen to the social and environmental issues specific to our business that people would like to see us taking action on. It helps us to set our sustainability and people strategy for the year ahead as well as prioritise what to focus our impact targets on as we navigate these increasingly uncertain times.

So a big thank you to all our customers and community out there who took the time to answer our call for feedback and let us know what really matters to you in these times of social and environmental transformation. Key trends this year were –

Key future trends

Environmental regeneration and reforestation. 听This issue continued to be top of our environment section, with 35.8% of people highlighting this as the most important issue.听It is interesting to see that this category, alongside clean green cities is still a primary concern among women in particular with 71% of females choosing these two causes over other environmental causes.

For 32% of all entrants, clean and green cities is the standout issue this year and especially high on the agenda for those respondents under 25 years old. 听This is a big increase from 2019 and perhaps is a result of COVID-19 lockdown and people spending more time in their cities of habitation to care about developing them sustainably into the future.

Education continued to be most important social issue with a total of 49.3% of participants choosing this over other options. This was predominantly a female choice with 65% of the respondents to this being women over the age of 25.

Diversity and Inclusion was the second most important issue in the social category for both genders with 32% prioritising this challenge. Perhaps this is to be expected given the BLM protests during summer 2020 and the increasing focus on social inequality as we move through the rest of the year.

Mental health continued to top the Health and Wellbeing category this year with 45% of all entrants saying this was a priority issue for them. 64% of people choosing this category were again female.

Similar to 2019, the next highest category of concern for people of all ages and genders was exercise & nutrition, with 37% saying this was their primary concern. Again given COVID-19 and the emphasis on exercise and nutrition as supporting immunity, this is perhaps not surprising.

With 2020 thus far being dominated by the COVID-19 challenges and the increase in job uncertainty, 49% of all entrants in the future economies section felt that Social Mobility and Job Creation was the most important issue to address into the next 12 months.

Where do we go from here?

This information is gold dust for us as a business and is helping to shape how we are responding to key social and environmental concerns as we move into the second part of 2020.

Our sustainability strategy for the next 12 months will see us continue to focus on producing high quality, organic kombucha with as low an environmental footprint as possible. This will mean applying continual focus to the local provenance of our ingredients, reviewing our packaging on an ongoing basis and reducing our carbon footprint as we continue to grow. This will involve a variety of regenerative business strategies that we will use to engage our partners and supply chain into shared positive impact.

Mental and physical health will continue to be a focus and with the continuing impact of COVID, these challenges are more important to address than ever before. We will continue to engage our customers and our community over social media and leverage our ongoing community investment in Calderdale to leverage cross-sector learning and story sharing as mechanisms to drive health and wellbeing throughout the local system.

Of course all of this will be continually shaped by the events of the coming months as we move into winter and see how the pandemic plays out across the UK and our global ecosystems. Resilience and respons-ability will be key, as will connecting to the wider B Corp community across the world and learning from each other how to thrive in times of uncertainty and unrest.

There truly never has been a better time to put ethics at the core of business practice and really walk our talk. This is challenging at times but exceptionally rewarding as we start to evolve into the next stage of our vision as a challenger brand. Good things rarely come easily but they are so worth it in the long run! And at 黑料大事记 we are certainly all about the long game of ethical business.

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Since then, the world has changed dramatically and so now we want to seek your input again.

Thank you so much for your help in shaping our journey!

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黑料大事记 was founded in 2012 in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, a beautiful valley that runs along the banks of the River Calder 鈥� the artery that flows through our local ecosystem. An ecosystem that is, unfortunately, increasingly prone to flash floods. These floods are in part due to the burning of heather on the hills in order to facilitate hunting, as well as the growing levels of pollution that tends to settle in the lower parts of the valley as the number of cars grows day by day.

In 2015, we experienced the impacts of these changes first hand when our brewery was flooded, a terrible disaster that almost put us out of business. In February 2020, the river flooded once again and we had to restore our warehouse back from waist deep floodwaters to fully operational BRC Food Safety Standards in 10 days.

Then in March, COVID-19 hit and we found ourselves in lockdown, able to continue operating but having to pay even more care and attention to the safety and wellbeing of our staff, our community and our customers. Fortunately, over a year ago in May 2019, we had already decided to begin the journey to certifying and becoming a B Corp.

As an ethical company founded in sustainable values, doing the right thing for all our stakeholders (social and environmental) is fundamental to our long-term vision and the values that govern how we do business. The events of 2020 so far, have only served to strengthen our beliefs in this journey and embrace the social and environmental practices that help us truly live our ethics on a day-to-day basis.

Why B Corp?

The (B Corp for short) measures how a company is performing on a social and environmental level. The process involves the 鈥楤 Impact Assessment鈥� that offers an evaluation of how a company impacts its governance, workers, community, environment and customers. The assessment is extremely robust and ensures that as a business you鈥檙e really walking your talk when it comes to important issues such as climate change, diversity, inclusion and customer education.

The journey over the last year towards our first ever B Corp certification has helped us to really listen to where we can make the most impact as a business, and we have already seen exciting transformations as a result. Sustainability, inclusion and ethics have become the foundation on which we base our core business decisions. Our people, our community in Calderdale and our customers are all adding their voices to our on-going conversations into our social and environmental strategy and impact and we intend to do more of this as we move into the rest of 2020 with the climate of uncertainty it has already brought across the world.

With this uncertainty and recent events in mind, we鈥檒l be gathering information and listening so we can be sure that any community-based efforts we take on in the future actually reflect the needs of our local community. This is how we believe 黑料大事记 (in line with our B-Corp identity) can be a positive Changemaker.

Since the beginning of our B Corp adventure, just 12 months ago,听we鈥檝e made some significant progress:

• We鈥檝e begun a journey to growing our business the right way. By this, we mean measuring our carbon footprint, reducing our environmental impact and enhancing local pieces of land to regenerate biodiversity.
• We鈥檙e focused on local recruitment to help build jobs for our community in a chronically under-employed and underprivileged part of the UK.
• We鈥檝e been listening to the needs of our community and are starting to develop inclusive mental, emotional and physical health education programmes.
• We鈥檝e begun co-operating with our long-term partners to visualise and over time develop a systematic approach to ethical, clean, organic manufacturing which will, hopefully, one day be shared and replicated in other parts of the world.
• Most of all, we have put the needs of our biggest stakeholder right at the centre of everything we do 鈥� it鈥檚 the SCOBY in our Kombucha that shows us how to create healthy, living, evolving cultures.

At 黑料大事记, we have a vision of a future ecosystem where humanity and nature are in dynamic balance and prosper together.

We want a future where 鈥榟ealth鈥� is fully understood to be a dynamic process, connecting mind, body and spirit.

We鈥檙e working towards a future where 鈥榚thics鈥� becomes a non-negotiable part of doing business and gives a return on imagination, integration and investment!

And we鈥檙e learning how to really listen and learn from our community and our environment so we can continue to explore how to do business in the right way for all our stakeholders.

Finally, if we think about Kombucha, it can only flourish when all the ingredients and the environment that it develops in are just right. Through the lens of permaculture, we can draw parallels with our local communities and society. Only when we have a balanced local ecosystem can we expect our communities to flourish.

In our view, this balance comes from clean air and water, healthy food and drink at affordable prices, clean rivers, fields and forests and a social communal framework that鈥檚 free from prejudice, hatred, assumption and fear. Getting there will take patience, effort, and most importantly an ability to listen, learn and change 鈥� together. By making these changes in our local communities we believe that this in turn will create changes on a larger scale that the world so desperately needs.

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