Lo Bros, the much-loved UK-made Kombucha, launches the next step in its ‘Doin’ Good’ mission and has become a Net Zero Plastic Brand by taking meaningful action on its plastic footprint and help rid our oceans of plastic!
Lo Bros was born to disrupt the soft drinks industry and to shine a spotlight on the industry’s worst impact problems: sugar and single-use plastic bottles.
The soft drinks industry tops the list of global polluters, causing up to 34 billion plastic bottles to enter our oceans each year. It is also one of the biggest contributors to the global obesity crisis through the added sugar in most fizzy drinks.
“We make Kombucha the authentic way. We start with sugar, organic tea and a scoby, which is slow brewed, to turn it into something positive – tasty natural low-sugar drinks bubbling with live cultures,” says Lo Bros founder, Didi Lo.
Kombucha is a fermented tea drink full of live cultures and made with only natural ingredients. It’s a much healthier low-sugar alternative to other fizzy drinks, squashes and cordials that make up the majority of the £290 billion soft drinks industry.
Earlier this year, Lo Bros set themselves the goal to remove 100 tonnes of sugar from the UK diet in 2023 alone.
“But that’s not where the doin’ good ends,” Lo continues. “Every day in the UK, more than 38 million single-use plastic bottles are used and of those, 15 million end up in landfill or incinerated, and 700,000 are littered.”
“These figures are shocking. As of April 2023 every Lo Bros drink sold removes the equivalent weight of two PET soft drink bottles from our oceans and waterways. We see our drinks as a true impact vehicle for positive change in the industry, and to fund the removal of over 25 million bottles over the next 5 years!”
“Worries surrounding plastic pollution are particularly high right now,” says Lo. “We need businesses, consumers – everyone – to wake up to these industry issues and demand greater action on plastic pollution.”
Lo Bros has partnered with the incredible team at Seven Clean Seas, an ocean clean-up organisation based out of Indonesia. The partnership helps remove plastic from marine environments in some of the worst polluted countries globally, starting in Indonesia. To add to their brilliance, all Seven Clean Seas clean-up crews are paid living wages and health insurance and all projects are third-party verified through the Ocean Bound Plastic certification. Tom Peacock-Nazil, the co-founder of Seven Clean Seas, says: “Partnering with Lo Bros is a great opportunity to generate literal tons of positive environmental and social impact whilst giving the existing soda market the disruptive shove it needs in the right direction! What’s not to love?!”
On top of that, Lo Bros also partnered with Plastic Collective, a leading global player creating circular economies for plastic, conducting a global plastic audit. While Lo Bros stands firmly against single-use plastic bottles, the audit measured their own plastic footprint. This involved assessing all plastic used in packaging, warehousing and freight, including bottle cap seals and pallet wrap, with a clear assessment of plastic that is likely to enter the environment, and that is likely to remain unrecycled. The audit then concluded with a review of all activities that need to be done to mitigate their plastic use, such as phasing out all avoidable plastic and address all unavoidable plastic by partnering with projects to collect, recycle and consequently remove plastic from our environment, to become a net zero plastic brand. Steve Hardman the chairman of Plastic Collective says:
“Plastic Collective is proud to work with Lo Bros to establish their key plastic accounting metrics so they can develop a sustainable strategy to mitigate plastic waste in accordance with the Guidelines for Corporate Plastic Stewardship. We applaud Lo Bros on becoming a Net Zero Plastic Brand.”
By championing plastic stewardship through the announcement of its revolutionary ‘doin’ good’ model, Lo Bros has become a net zero plastic pioneer within the UK’s Kombucha and soft drinks industry.
Lo Bros is owned by Soulfresh, a purpose-driven ‘better-for-us’ food and beverage company that is disrupting food for a better world.
Earlier this year, Lo Bros announced its fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth and 80% growth year-on-year in the ‘out of home’ category. The brand aims to triple the size of its business in the next three years.
Sources:
Green Alliance 2021. Losing the bottle.
Parliament.uk 2017. Plastic Bottle Waster in the UK
