Good drinks: 8 bevs that give back

We love that the vegan wines in the One to One range are sustainably grown and made, produced with minimal intervention in the winery, and bottled in 98% recycled – and recyclable – lightweight glass. Not only that, but this wine range also spans a choice of styles, from a fresh sparkling and light rosé to rich red wines (we’re big fans of the shiraz) and they come with a very friendly under-$20 price tag.    

If all that doesn’t convince you, for every six bottles of One to One wine sold, a square metre of bushland is planted. But for the month of April, they’re going even better and planting a square metre of bushland for every single bottle sold, so now there’s more incentive to try these tasty South Australian wines.

Flor de Caña is one of the world’s top names in rum and the world’s first spirit to be both carbon neutral and Fair Trade certified. Born in 1890 when Italian adventurer Alfredo Fransico Pella Canessa stumbled upon an Eden-like patch of land at San Cristóbal, Nicaragua’s most active volcano, the distillery is still managed by Alfredo’s family to this day. Relying on mineral-dense water and rich volcanic soils, they put sustainability front and centre. 

It all starts with sustainably sourced raw materials – a worthy foundation for a mighty rum. Carbon emitted during fermentation is captured and recycled onsite at their distillery (which is powered by 100% renewable energy). They’ve also planted 50,000 trees each year since 2005 as part of One Tree Planted, a global reforestation campaign, and have been APROQUEN’s top donor over the past three decades, providing over 600,000 free medical services to child burn victims. Good rum in every way.

Brendan and Laura Carter established Unico Zelo in 2014 to highlight Australia’s unique native ingredients and honour thousands of years of Indigenous custodianship and farming. Their range of lo-fi wine is at the forefront of Australia’s minimal-intervention movement, and they also set the benchmark for locally made spirits. Although the Økar Mando and Cello liqueurs that you see here are rare as hen’s teeth outside of South Australia, the gin from their Applewood Distillery is easy to come by, downright delicious and sets a bold tone for the future of Aussie drink-making. 

Unico Zelo is a certified B Corporation, holding itself to the highest verifiable standards possible. This places it among a raft of global members pushing for inclusive, equitable, regenerative economies and businesses. Transparency is a key principle for B Corporations, so you can view all of Unico Zelo’s activities on their Sustainability Tracker. We’ll raise a glass to that!

It’s hard to believe the Stone & Wood story began as recently as 2008. This B Corp-certified, Byron Bay-based brewery was founded by three mates with the vision of creating a conscious local business, and while the company – and its ownership – has since evolved, its beers remain synonymous with the Aussie craft beer movement. We’ll wager there isn’t a pub or bottle-o that doesn’t stock their Pacific Ale.

In 2013, Stone & Wood established Ingrained, a community-focused initiative designed to give back to the communities where their beer is made, sold and enjoyed. They raised and donated over $630,000 between 2013 and 2018 when the initiative went national as the Ingrained Foundation. Today, the foundation hosts annual fundraising events like the Murbah Open Day and the Festival of the Stone. It continues to donate $1 for every 100 litres of beer they produce to local communities.