Our climate is under threat and Brew Dr. has long held the belief that we as a business need to do all we can to protect it. In the last year alone, we’ve seen forest fires rage across the State of California, the rainforests of The Amazon, and now even in the Arctic, setting ablaze vital carbon-sequestering permafrost. We embarked on becoming the first carbon-neutral kombucha company in 2019 as a means of acknowledging the resources required to produce and distribute our kombucha. We proudly crossed the neutrality milestone in 2020.
This spring, the murder of George Floyd and a renewed uprising of the anti-racist movement led to an overdue awakening within our company walls: we cannot have a sustainable planet when the people inhabiting it are suffering due to the color of their skin.
The intersection of race and sustainability is everywhere. Here in Portland, OR, our hometown and where we produce our kombucha, interstate freeways were constructed through the heart of Black communities, displacing families and leaving those in close proximity vulnerable to respiratory illness from pollution. Within the food and beverage industry, Black people are more likely to live in a food desert than any other population, limiting their access to healthy produce. The examples of systemic racism are everywhere.
This is not acceptable, nor can we as a company move forward without working to build an actively anti-racist network around us. As part of our B Corp assessment, we are audited on our supply chain, employees, and how we give back to our local community. We are measured on the number of Black and minority-owned businesses we purchase raw materials from. We are measured on our internal diversity at all levels of the organization. We are measured on the amount we give back, and where the money goes. This framework, and means of accountability, is why we chose to become a B Corp and how we will use their foundation to continue to better our business.
Outside of how we’re scored as a B Corp, we’re also committed to using our donation structure to support anti-racism in an ongoing way that extends beyond a one-time donation. Learn more about this effort here.
Brew Dr. is constructing an intersectionality approach to our sustainability mission, to continue to reduce our carbon footprint and address the inequities within our communities wherever we can. Systemic racism that has been built over hundreds of years will take persistent time, energy, and resources to tear down. This will be lifelong work, and we are in it for the long haul. We are committed to doing everything we can to be actively anti-racist and environmentally responsible and we vow to continue to be transparent with you as we do.
