Bacardi is partnering with marine sustainability organisation Lonely Whale in the battle to rid the environment of single-use plastic. Their goal is to eliminate one billion single-use plastic straws by 2020 and Bacardi is backing its pledge with an ambitious The Future Doesn’t Suck campaign.
Bacardi has also committed to reviewing its global supply chain, with the aim of removing non-essential, non-recyclable single-use plastic waste.
Lonely Whale describes itself as an “an incubator for courageous ideas that drive impactful change on behalf of our oceans”. Its creative efforts to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, ocean-bound plastic pollution have earned Lonely Whale recognition as one of Huffington Post’s Top Ten Movers and Shakers in Environmental Sustainability.
With a #TheFutureDoesntSuck hashtag, Bacardi’s campaign encourages consumers and customers to support the initiative through a series of corporate and brand collaborations, events and calls-to-action around the world.
Bacardi Senior Vice President Corporate Responsibility Rick Wilson said: “Engaging our accounts and our consumers in the reduction of single-use plastic is a critical next step in helping to put an end to plastic pollution.
“Single-use plastic items are among the most collected pieces of trash in our oceans, and we are urging our consumers to add ‘No plastic straw, please’ to every drink order so together we can make impactful change.”
Lonely Whale Executive Director Dune Ives commented: “In 2016, Bacardi led the drinks industry with the first #NoStraws campaign focusing on eliminating single-use plastic straw from its cocktails.
“In 2017, Lonely Whale amplified this early leadership, creating one of the most celebrated global movements around the single-use plastic straw with our Strawless Ocean initiative to remove 500 million plastic straws from the US waste stream.
“Now in 2018, we celebrate the combined power of Bacardi and Lonely Whale to reduce the single-use plastic straw population by one billion by 2020 in what we believe will become one of the most impactful environmental campaigns of this decade.”
#TheFutureDoesntSuck started in London, England, where Bacardi rum and Lonely Whale targeted a “radical reduction” of single-use plastic straw consumption throughout the city. Its campaign was backed by a series of poignant illustrations highlighting the impact of single-use plastic straws on the world’s oceans.
Bacardi rum intends to eliminate single-use plastic straws from music and other branded events, and the Bacardi rum truck, and used biodegradable paper cups across the UK activations. Proceeds from ticket sales to Casa Bacardi music events, which took place in June, and will continue this month, in London, Manchester, and Birmingham, will support the Lonely Whale’s Strawless Ocean initiative.
The Bacardi campaign will be extended to all of its major music activities in North America this autumn.
In support of the collaboration, Bacardi’s global headquarters in Bermuda launched a new training programme for distributor partners and on-premise locations which offer alternatives to plastic straws. In the USA, where an estimated 500 million plastic straws are used and discarded each day, Bacardi will continue to partner with national chains and independent accounts to promote plastic-free, marine-friendly straw, or strawless options for cocktails.
The Bacardi and Lonely Whale campaign in China will be in collaboration with ten leaders in the hospitality and spirits industry.
Bacardi Global Chief Marketing Officer John Burke said: “Every day we have an army of people walking into bars and restaurants around the world. We share this campaign with our partners and people working the front-line, those who want to make their voice and support for eliminating single-use plastics heard.
“Just as importantly, we want to raise the table stakes. Our focus for the past two years has been leading the industry charge with our #NoStraws pledge and now is the time to review the larger issue of single-use plastic in the greater Bacardi world to determine how and where we can truly make a bigger difference and continue leading the charge to build a more sustainable future.
“I believe through collaborations like this one with Lonely Whale, where we can bring society and business together, we can make impactful change to ensure #TheFutureDoesntSuck.”
Ives said eliminating straws was “a natural starting point” when Lonely Whale considered optimal ways to reduce future plastic pollution and help marine life.
“Americans alone are estimated to use around 500 million of these often non-essential single-use plastics every day. Removing straws from our daily lives could therefore have an enormously positive impact on our oceans’ health.
“But straws are just the beginning. Our engagement with Bacardi promises to attract, surprise and educate individuals across all demographics and geographies and encourage them, as Bacardi is doing, to go beyond the straw and work collaboratively to ensure #TheFutureDoesntSuck.”
Both Bacardi and Lonely Whale support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, comprised of goals and targets set to stimulate action in areas of critical importance for both humanity and the planet.
“We believe that through partnerships with governments, other companies in the private sector, and others, we can have a positive impact on many of the goals,” Ives concluded.
On Bacardi’s dedicated The Future Doesn’t Suck website individuals can declare their commitment to go plastic-straw free and recruit restaurants, hotels, bars and other venues. Establishments can register their commitment and challenge others to do the same.