Internationally-award-winning non-alcoholic lager gurus, Beneficial Beer Co (BBCo), have struck a first-of-its-kind deal with BetaCarbon, an Australian fintech company enabling retail investors to take part in the Australian carbon market.
Beneficial Beer Co is the first FMCG brand to partner with BetaCarbon in a deal that will see BetaCarbon QR codes on all BBCo Stone Cold Lager cans, encouraging customers to redeem 100 free Australian Carbon Tokens (BCAU).
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BetaCarbon offers the world’s first digital token based on a regulated carbon credit. It converts Australian carbon credits into Australian Carbon Tokens, with each token representing 1kg of CO2 that has been avoided or removed from the atmosphere. One thousand BCAUs are equivalent to one Australian Carbon Credit Unit.
Founded last year by ex-HSBC managing director Guy Dickinson, BetaCarbon was born to give the public exposure to an asset class that previously was only available to wholesale investors.
“Before we developed BetaCarbon, the Australian carbon market was only accessible to businesses that met the arduous requirements of opening a registry account with the Clean Energy Regulator,” Dickinson said.
“Now we’re giving everyday consumers and small-medium sized businesses the ability to also consider this as a way to diversify their investment portfolios. Australian retail investors purchasing BCAUs will indirectly increase demand for carbon, as BetaCarbon takes carbon credits off the market in order to mint more BCAUs. This will in turn incentivise more green projects.”
From the outset, Beneficial Beer Co Founder and serial entrepreneur David Jackson knew he wanted his business to be a driving force for good.
Driven by the value of ‘Brewed for Humankind’, BBCo works with solar-powered brewing partners and actively recycles spent production grain to feed local livestock, with the latest BetaCarbon partnership another string to the company’s sustainability bow.
“We brewed our first batch of Stone Cold Lager in March, so to know that in our first year of business we’re going to be contributing to BetaCarbon’s vision and efforts is not only a win for BBCo but for me personally as well,” Jackson said.
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“What really sealed the deal for me was the fact that Guy and his team actually have a plan to drive tangible results. The partnership is representing two brands thinking outside the box to help drive good outcomes for people and the planet.
“In the short-term, BBCo customers will each receive the tokenised equivalent of 100kg of Australian carbon, but in the long-term, the more the community invests, the more influence it will have on how emissions are priced in Australia and therefore what it costs big business to pollute.”
