This blog I am really excited about.

Last Friday 2nd April we launched Campaign Against Carbon with Cushiedoos.

This has been in our business purpose from the start – Cushiedoos being a platform to help plant more trees than I can ever imagine.

It’s time to start playing our role in helping to fight the carbon climate crisis with our “Buy 1 get 2 tree” initiative. The exciting part is our trade customers and drinkers can all help us and play a role in our journey too!

For every 12 bottles of Cushiedoos bought we will plant one tree so this means that two trees will be planted for every 24 bottle case sold to trade customers via their wholesale suppliers.

Like many of you may feel, I have been concerned with the global climate crisis we face. I don’t like sitting back and being resigned to the fact I can’t do anything about it. I have found a way that as a start up business we can do our bit. With help from you, our drinkers and customers, we all can make a real difference.

Why plant trees rather than other eco initiatives?

You probably already know this but here goes. Put simply, it’s the carbon in our atmosphere we need to reduce. It traps the heat from the sun and warms the planet. I hope you’ve watched David Attenborough’s programmes in the last year on BBC. One to watch if you haven’t is “Extinction” on BBC iPlayer. It’s another real wake up call from real science & facts and hlpes us see how we all can make a difference.

Just in case you think differently, this quote below should help you understand the rationale for our plan summarised as this…

“The restoration of trees remains among the most effective strategies for climate change mitigation.”

Science magazine.

So is it all about trees now?

Yes it’s always been about trees for me. Continuing to provide superior tasting drinks remains to be the main foundation of the business alongside this. Tree planting is at the heart of our business purpose alongside this – to help tackle our global carbon crisis through the operation of the business. Put simply, growing our business we will increase the number of trees we can plant.

Although Cushiedoos is still in its infancy and trading conditions have been challenging for our customers, this greater purpose has helped us to remember that there is a greater achievement that we and our customers can all focus on – our planet and the safety of our children and future generations. This excites me a lot.

For me it’s gone too far not to have this as a focus for every company as I see it. For us it is more than just an eco tick box exercise that larger corporations can do. We are launching this as a fledgling business with plenty of growth challenges and things in plan. It’s time to start our work now. I hope you can’t join us simply buy buying Cushiedoos.

Yes there are many important environmental issues to support, but it all means nothing if we don’t have a planet with a balance of ecosystems to actually live and survive on. Are we perfect in every aspect of our own business, no. We are looking at continual improvement throughout all our operations to ensure the lowest environmental impact and play our part. More to come from us on that.

Yes our liquids need to be better than the competition and are healthy. Great Taste awards and feedback we receive indicate we’re doing the right thing. We also hope that when drinkers will be making buying choices that are making good ethical choices for our planet. Drink Better, feel better about your health and our planet.

So choosing Cushiedoos in a bar or shop and you’ll contributing to the planting of a tree sapling. That tree will go on to re-seed a number of new trees in its lifetime. So it’s likely that in 20 years time you’ll have helped plant a number of trees from that one single purchase in reality. That’s pretty cool and surely worth supporting.

What does this look like for trade?

For our trade customers it’s a simple message ‘Buy 1, get 2 Tree’. We sell them a case of 24 bottles. So, as well as growing their business and improving its proposition, they can do good through their business operations too. We’ll be giving our tree trackers for their own bar too so they can show and be proud of the support they provide.

So where are the trees being planted?

Planting will be taking place in three main countries – Madagascar, Mozambique and Nicaragua. These countries have vast deforested areas that our partners at Eden Projects have set aside to reforest and rewild. Of the trees planted 75% will be mangrove saplings.

What’s the big deal about Mangroves?

Mangroves are truly fantastic trees. These little gems are ten times more effective at capturing carbon from the atmosphere. Yup, they’re real-life planet heroes as I see it. They manage to not only take in carbon through their leaves, branches and trunks, they also store it in their roots and the surrounding soil.

These mangroves can be planted on both land and in wetland areas making them very versatile. As already explained, the encouraging news is that the trees we plant will also go on to set further seed and so it is likely far more trees will grow there as a result.

Eden Projects also helps provide employment to poorer communities and other projects such as local education.

Is this ethically & environmentally sustainable?

Eden Projects, our partners, are accredited by Gold Standard so their tree planting ensures an ethical and sustainable approach to both climate and community. Their projects support other projects like local education, utilities like fresh water are provided supporting them. While we pay a small contribution every month to these supporting projects, we are being really focused. Our focus is unashamedly to plants trees through our ‘Buy 1 get 2 Tree’ offering to trade. LOADS OF TREES.

Why not plant trees in Scotland?

I had a reality check. Although the original plan was to plant in Scotland, I quickly realised we could fund planting 28 trees in these countries and help provide support to poor local communities vs planting 1 tree in Scotland. Yes, we have plans to plant trees in Scotland but these will be on smaller scale, localised initiatives. This is about the greater impact we can make on carbon capture – our global problem.

If you want to discuss this more please do get in touch whether you’re a trade customer or a drinker keen to support us. We’ll be sharing more through our social media feeds too so go and check us out.

Cushiedoos can help us deliver our way of doing our bit for the planet. Together we can have a real impact and plant thousands and thousands of trees. Not only will you feel better drinking a healthier tonic water (from our botanicals and being quinine-free) but you can feel better in yourself that you are supporting a business trying to make a real change.

Let’s Doo good!

Cheers.