Blog: Sustainability in Spirits

If you work in FMCGs sector I bet Sustainability is an important point in your company strategy. We have seen big players in Food and Beverages taking big steps on that. Governments are also working hard to take care of our beautiful environment.

Four years a go, in a sustainability workshop for a big company in the beverage industry, I got to know more in depth Loop , a great initiative that activates a circular ecosystem by collaborating with brands, retailers, and manufacturers to enable the sale and collection of reusable and returnable versions of conventional single-use products to make reuse convenient and accessible. Since then, I´ve seen lots of brands tring this new business model.

Chaging the business model or the RTM (route to market) is a huge challenge in a big organization. That´s why those companies that really beleve in Innovation as future source of business, prototype their solutions starting in a small scale and expecting small volumes (but growing). The big mistake is to expect huge volumes on a new business model even when your investment is huge. Consumers, retailers and also manufacturers need time to get used to new things. "Speed" is a complex concept that we can discuss in a future article.

Another option, instead of changing the whole Business model, is adapting your current skus and evolving it to cover new consumer/customers needs. This is more feasible and quick if the need is very relevant, and the solution solves a real problem or pain point.

I was ver happy to see this new initiative called Ecospirits who provides the world’s first lower carbon, lower waste spirits distribution technology through a circular economy format, known as ecoTOTEs. The first global customer wh tried this initiative is Diageo, being the first spirits producer to sign a global agreement with ecoSPIRITS for the distribution of Gordon’s, Captain Morgan and Smirnoff in reusable glass packaging format in an expected 18 markets over the next three years. Diageo’s spirits will be sent to participating bars, hotels and restaurants in a 4.5L ecoTOTE designed to be used up to 150 times, and once empty will be collected, cleaned and refilled with the same spirit. Pernod Ricard has also signed a contract with Ecospirits to start working together within their iconic brands.

It´s great to see this kind of innovation to improve people´s life, reducing the CO2 while keeping the same drinking experience. What´s your view on this? Do you think consumers will appreciate it? Do you think they would prefer to have their longdrink served from a bottle? Share your view!