Back in 2015, Louisa Ziane helped get Toast Ale off the ground. Now, she’s the sustainable craft beer brand’s COO, and in 2021 she spearheaded Toast’s most ambitious project to date: the Companion Series.
Created to coincide with the COP26 Climate Talks held in Glasgow in October and November, the series saw Toast team up with 24 breweries across the U.K. and Ireland to brew 26 different beers, all of which were made following Toast Ale’s m.o.—replacing a portion of the brewing grains with surplus fresh bread in an effort to fight food waste and highlight issues of sustainability within the beer industry and beyond.
In addition to the collaboration brews, all breweries involved also signed an open letter calling on the world leaders meeting at COP26 to work together to make concrete commitments to help combat climate change. And a portion of the sales from each Companion Series case was donated directly to Rainforest Trust UK and Soil Heroes to invest in conservation and regenerative agriculture projects.
All of this came off the back of the brewery’s Rise Up campaign, which kicked off in late 2020 and saw Toast partner with seven fellow B Corporations on limited-edition beers—like a Chocolate Stout brewed with Divine cocoa powder, and a low-alcohol Raspberry Sour brewed with wonky raspberries from Rubies in the Rubble—to raise awareness of the impact of our food system on the planet and galvanize drinkers into action. (And yes, Ziane was responsible for helping Toast become the first U.K. brewery to achieve B Corp certification!)
A former sustainability consultant at the Carbon Trust, Ziane has now turned her attention to beer—and she and the Toast Ale team are proving that we really can make the world a better place, one pint at a time.
Words,Natalya Watson