E Club | The social business turning beer into clean water

How many times have you found conversation over drinks with friends turn to the really big problems facing humanity? Plenty, I’d guess.

There just seems to be something in relaxing in these moments that turns our attention to putting the world to rights on poverty, hunger and war. They also seem to bring out the best in your creativity. (That or you lose your ability to tell a good idea from a bad one after your third Punk IPA).

It was at one such gathering that an idea struck me. What if, rather than just talking about these chunky problems when enjoying beer, you could actually tackle some of them by drinking the stuff?

So the concept for Brewgooder was born. It was a simple idea really – make a great tasting beer, sell it all over the world and invest all the profits in funding clean water projects in Africa, the Middle East, Central and Southern Asia.

In essence – turn beer into clean water.

It’s not my first taste of social business of course. Together Social Bite co-founder, Josh Littlejohn and I developed the socially conscious sandwich chain’s corporate catering business, to tackle homelessness and fund solutions to local issues.

Through the Scottish Business Awards we’ve had impact nationwide, raising more than £4m for charity while bringing the country’s leading companies and entrepreneurs together to demonstrate the power of social business.

But what is new is the scale of the global challenge we’re trying to address.

Water is the basic necessity for life and we use it every day for absolutely everything. Drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing – you name it – you can’t go through a day without using it. (It’s also absolutely crucial to brewing beer.)

But in 2016 there are still more than 650 million people around the world who live without access to safe drinking water, and a further 2.3bn who don’t have access to adequate sanitation. The result – more than 500,000 children die each year from perfectly preventable water-borne diseases.

Lack of clean water also effects everything from educational achievement, access to nutritious food and healthcare. It’s no coincidence the world’s poorest people don’t have access to it.

Brewgooder’s vision combines the entrepreneurial and the social to address this. We want to grow and scale a successful company with the bold ambition of providing clean drinking water and sanitation for 1,000,000 people within five years – lifting entire communities out of poverty for good.

And we’re going to make it possible for drinkers to express their altruism without radically having to alter their behaviour. We’re inviting them to do doing exactly what they love – drinking good beer.

But if our prior experience has taught us anything, it’s that passion, hard work and a socially-conscious business philosophy counts for nothing if you don’t have the right product. A well-intentioned ‘charity beer’ just won’t cut it long-term if it doesn’t taste good.

As much as we enjoy drinking it, Josh and I know very little about how to actually make beer. So we’re really grateful to be working with one Scotland’s leading craft brewer – the best in the business in our opinion – to make sure our cans and pints taste the best they can.

The past few months have been fantastic as we’ve developed the concept, but the real work starts now. This World Water day (22^nd March) we will launch of our initial crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help us expand Brewgooder across the UK and to the rest of the world.

Of course, none of this could be possible without backing from people who believe in what we’re trying to pioneer. Luckily, Scotland’s business ecosystem isn’t short of supportive, talented people and we’ve found plenty of individuals and organisations willing to help us spread the word and make Brewgooder a reality.