A good collab for environmental sustainability

Kusaga Athletic has teamed up with Brisbane social enterprise The Good Beer Co to bring to you a T-shirt that promotes environmental sustainability and a company campaigning for social good.

Printed on the World’s Greenest T-Shirt, the collab features artwork from The Good Beer Co – the incredible startup by James Grugeon. We talked to James about The Good Beer Co and what this collab means for his business.

Q. What is The Good Beer Co?

A. The Good Beer Co is a social enterprise beer company. Just as it sounds, we raise money through the sale of different beers for related charities. An example of this is our first beer, Great Barrier Beer which has been raising money for the Australian Marine Conservation Society. We want to brew and sell good craft beer that supports causes that the majority of Australians care about and to make it easy for them to do good - just by enjoying a good beer. Our Great Barrier Beer was launched and sold across Queensland and in tourism focussed businesses on the reef, as well as on a P&O cruise ship fleet that travel to the reef from Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Q. How did The Good Beer Co come about?

A. I really believed I could develop a business model that inherently does good in terms of its reason for existing, not just as an afterthought or add on. Sustainability in a business like The Good Beer Co should mean growing a profitable business by creating a popular beer brand that is focussed on giving back to good causes. Beer was a no-brainer for me, it’s something I enjoy a lot, so I was stoked to be able to work with these two things I’m passionate about – beer and social enterprise!

Q. Who makes The Good Beer Co’s beer?

A. We’ve partnered up with a few different breweries in the UK and here in Australia in different ways over the last 18 months, most recently with Bright Brewery in Victoria for our beer for the Australian Marriage Equality campaign, Love2. Right now I am in the process of finding a long term solution to help us to scale up The Good Beer Co so we can brew a range of beers that support multiple charities. That means finding a partner who can meet our demand for a quality product but who also shares our values. First and foremost, the quality and taste of our beers needs to be our number one priority because it doesn’t matter how good the causes we support are, if people don’t love the beer it won’t work! That’s why I’m excited we get to work with award-winning independent craft brewers like Bright Brewery.

Q. What’s The Good Beer Co’s ‘A good beer always helps’ T-shirt all about?

A. My “A Good Beer Always Helps” T-shirt is is practically all I wear - it was the first branded T-shirt we produced. People ask me all the time where they can get  one, so making them available to our supporters and customers is something I’d always been interested in, but being a company committed to sustainability, it was hard to find a social enterprise partner that could provide a really green T-shirt. Once I met Graham and  got to know how Kusaga works I knew it was a perfect fit.   

Q. Can you tell us about some of the other beers you’re working on?

A. We’ve just worked with Bright Brewery in Victoria to develop our second beer Love2 which was in support of marriage equality. That beer is now sold out but we’re looking to relaunch it in the new year with a focus on supporting the push for equality across Australia. We also worked with the Jo Cox Foundation in the UK to produce beer in collaboration with 16 different brewers over there for their Great Get Together weekend of events. It was stocked in 300 pubs across the UK and I’m excited that we’re going to be working to go bigger and better on that project in 2018. And next year, we’re relaunching Great Barrier Beer with a new charity partner joining the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Love 2, and a range of new beers with new charity partners.

Q. Can we expect any more to come from the The Good Beer Co and Kusaga collab?

A. Definitely. We’re looking at doing a whole range of merchandise that supports all of the different causes that our beers support. Stay tuned.