🛒 The Check-Out: Paul Mathew, Everleaf Drinks
+ 5 cool climate events + what's in our basket - Naturli, Leatherz, DASH and more!
Happy Thursday! Welcome to The Check-Out - your weekly dose of climate x consumer goods inspiration, and your discovery box of products and events the Following the Footprints team are loving this week. It’s great to have you here.
Fancy founding a drinks company? Train as a conservation biologist! Perhaps not the most conventional career advice you’ve ever heard, but when you see how a deep understanding of (and respect for) our natural world is infused (see what we did there) in Everleaf’s non-alcoholic aperitifs - it makes total sense. Today, we’re joined by Paul to chat all things 1% for the Planet, their good / better / best ingredient sourcing approach, and the podcasts and creators he recommends you follow.
After we chat to Paul, we’ll share what the Following the Footprints team has loved and consumed this week and 5 Climate x Consumer Goods events coming up.
HOLD UP! There’s also a special invitation to a special event we’re running next week in London with Nudie Jeans, Belazu, The Uncommon, Dalstons and Yep Kitchen - hidden within the event section of today’s newsletter. Finders
keepersjoiners, or something like that...
Let’s dig in…
> Brand Spotlight
🎙️ Behind the Brand: 7 questions with Paul Mathew, Founder of Everleaf Drinks
👉 Your background as a conservation biologist is fascinating. How has this informed your sourcing principles? Any advice for other brands, given your expertise?
My father was a botanist, studying plants in the wild and at the Herbarium at Kew Gardens throughout his career. I followed closely in his footsteps, but loved the human element - how people use the plants and influence the habitats in which they grow. This led to my first career as a conservation biologist, looking how people could use plants sustainably, and how an ecosystem might be worth more in its wild state than intensively farmed or cut down. This has obviously influenced how I think about sourcing ingredients for Everleaf, and I’m really mindful about where they’re coming from and who is benefitting from that.
We look at all our ingredients under a good/better/best approach. Firstly we assess whether or not the plant is in any way threatened or at risk in trade. If it is, we won’t use it (this is basic “good” practice). For example some of the first Everleaf Forest contained quassia which is on the IUCN Red List. Our supplier wasn’t able to provide proof that it was sourced sustainably, so we stopped using it as soon as we had assessed. “Better” means that there’s another level of benefit to the sourcing, for example I went down a rabbit hole with sugar, initially using Fair Trade cane sugar to support farmers producing in the right way, but have now settled on British beet sugar as it significantly reduced our carbon footprint. Finally there’s “best” - the sourcing is actively benefitting communities and plant conservation. In this case we have things like our Madagascan vanilla, sourced from a programme that is funding schooling, adult education initiatives, best practice agriculture and conservation of protected areas around the vanilla producers. In this case, I’ve even been out to verify what is being done, and met some of the farmers growing our vanilla organically.
My advice to other brands would be to ask lots of questions and to keep asking them. Make sure you’re checking and challenging when someone sells you something with ethical credentials, and recognise that it’s not one-and-done - we’ve had suppliers switch source without telling us for example.
👉 Why did you choose to support Fauna & Flora via 1% for the Planet, versus donate independently?
There are two parts to that. Firstly I think any ethical claims we make should be independently verified, so we have 1% for the Planet verifying our charitable giving, B-Corp verifying how we operate as a company, ClimatePartner verifying our carbon use calculations and offsets - it’s not just a claim we’re making ourselves. That makes us transparent and accountable.
The second part is about ensuring that there’s the biggest possible impact to anything we donate. People like 1% for the Planet have a much bigger audience than we do, so can amplify the message that we all have a part to play in ensuring the planet’s future. 1% is just the minimum that’s needed.
👉 It’s been fascinating to discover Equal Measures through you! How are you supporting them?
As an Equal Measures partner, we make annual donations that go towards education for those who might not have equal access to it (internationally recognised wine and spirit qualifications), as well as bursaries for people to attend interviews, and financial support for the wider work of Equal Measures, including their mentoring programme. That’s something I have also contributed to, supporting a mentee in their career progression within the industry (as well as learning a lot myself in the process!).
👉 Ok, magic wand time; if we could grant you three wishes for the drinks industry, what would they be?
The hospitality industry is rather struggling at the moment, so my first magic wand would remove those financial constraints so that we’d be in a position to pay great wages, offer fantastic training, and give people in the industry the support they need to grow in it. I love hospitality passionately, but it has its problems that need to be addressed. In a world where AI is drawing so much attention, we should be increasingly valuing the uniquely personal experience that great hospitality brings, and rewarding those people appropriately.
More transparency over ingredients and labelling (non alcoholic products have to give full ingredients and nutritional information while alcohol doesn’t, for example).
I wish more small independent brands were able to compete in the drinks industry. There are some wonderful small producers out there who make delicious products, but without big marketing budgets, this industry can be tough to make an impact in. It’s something the big drinks companies are supporting with more and more investment though, so maybe we’re seeing things changing here…
👉 What’s next for Everleaf’s impact? Any 2024 or 2025 goals you can share with us?
We’re just in the process of goal-setting at the moment, but we want to continue to improve our sourcing, reduce our carbon intensity, map a road to net zero and all those other lofty statements. What that means day-to-day is simply making sure all the little decisions we make are weighed up and impact factored in, whether that’s in brands we work with, how we source a new piece of merchandise, a switch in ingredient supplier, or just a choice of how we travel. Small changes, making one footprint after another count.
👉 How do YOU keep up with regulation, industry innovations, climate news and other brands?
The small brand startup world is quite a crazy one, and it’s easy to feel smothered with the list of things to do and keep up with at any one time. My escape is going running, and I’ll often use that as a time to catch up on industry / plant / sustainability and climate news with a podcast or three. Current favourites include the Maffeo Drinks podcast and Unearthed - Nature Needs Us from The RBG Kew.
👉 Finally - we’d love some recommendations; one climate-related resource, one person to follow online and one consumer brand that’s killing it!
Climate-related resource: I like listening to the TEDxLondon Climate Curious podcasts. They’re easily digestible and often thought provoking on an area of climate science that might be new to me. Definitely a useful way of reminding myself how much I don’t know about climate issues!
One person to follow: I love James Wong (aka botanygeek) for his educational, beautiful and overwhelmingly positive planty content. From tropical urban oases, to the lush microclimates of terrariums, his content always reminds me of the power that plants have to restore and regenerate us. His website is here.
Consumer brand that’s killing it: I love how ffern have swerved the traditional luxury perfume stereotypes and created a brand that is immensely covetable (with their exclusive ledger system), transparent in their ingredients and storytelling, and full of depth. Their seasonal releases transport me to the countryside through their podcasts and socials, which add so many layers to the scents themselves. I don’t often wear scents, but have some of these for when I do.
A huge thanks to Paul for jumping into the hot seat today!
> In Our Basket
🔎 What we loved and consumed this week:
From Katherine in London: I spent this past weekend with some family in Denmark and came across Naturli’s Cookie Dough Deluxe ice cream. It was so good that just about all my family members gave it a try and praised this rice-based alternative!
From Laura in Manchester: This week I’ve had Zombie Fruit Leatherz in my basket. Why? Because getting them became my six year old’s NUMBER ONE priority. The fun but mysterious snacks have little information available except that they are a B Corp and carbon neutral (though no standard listed). My climate detective alarm bells always ring when I read ‘carbon neutral,’ so let’s see!
From Rosalin in Manchester: I’m a big fan of having a trio of drinks at my desk: water, tea, and then a fun one. DASH water fits the bill and it’s made of wonky fruit!
> Monthly Events Roundup!
📆 5 Consumer Goods x Climate Events:
Browse 20+ upcoming consumer x climate events, and submit yours.
23rd July - AAFA - Traceability & Sustainability Conference
Organisers: American Apparel & Footwear Association
Location: Dearborn, MI, USA
31st July - What’s the latest in sustainability reporting? Recent developments and emerging connections
Organisers: Sweep
Location: Virtual
20th August - How to Create a Useful Product Carbon Footprint
Organisers: Altruistiq
Location: Virtual
3rd September - Agroecology, Organic, Regenerative, Nature-based A conversation on food systems sustainability framings
Organisers: Agroecology Coalition
Location: Virtual
Wait! That’s only 4! You promised us 5!
If you've made it this far... you deserve to be 1 of 5 spaces we're opening up to subscribers at our Following the Footprints x Nudie Jeans invite-only event next Wednesday 24th July in Soho, London.
If you'd like to join - RSVP here, and we'll be in touch!
That’s it for today!
Know a brand we should spotlight next? Let Leone know!
Have links that can make the team learn or laugh? Share them with us, we might just share them in The Check-Out next week.
Hungry for more? You’ll see us on Monday! That’s when we suit up and get serious, digging into a topic that is guaranteed to make you look smart at standup.
Much love,
Team FTF