Served becomes first carbon-negative hard seltzer

English drinks company Served claims it has become the world's first hard seltzer brand to go carbon negative.

The brand - co-owned by British singer and environmental champion Ellie Goulding - has updated its packaging to reflect its status, with a new design set to be rolled out across its range from April.

Served has partnered with CarbonCloud to analyse its carbon footprint at all stages of its production and operations, including agricultural inputs, packaging and distribution.

Its new labels will display carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), which converts the various effects of different greenhouse gases into the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide it would take to create the same greenhouse effect. Served's lime and raspberry hard seltzers have footprints of 0.41g and 0.42g CO2e per kg respectively.

Served co-founder Dean Ginsberg said: "Independently certified carbon labelling provides much-needed environmental transparency - it allows consumers, who are increasingly looking for more sustainable choices, to make informed decisions on the products they consume. We hope this will help drive improvement across the food industry and encourage healthy competition to 'race to the bottom' in terms of emissions."

Like many modern brands, Served has been designed with the environment in mind. Its drinks are infused with "wonky" fruit which has been rejected by retailers (primarily for aesthetic reasons) and would otherwise go to waste, and its aluminium cans are made in the UK with high levels of recycled aluminium.

Alongside these practices in direct operations, Served has partnered with Planet Mark, an internationally recognised sustainability certification for businesses, to assess "upstream" emissions such as those from waste, business travel, office emissions and homeworking. It is also investing in 'gold standard' carbon offsetting projects, and estimates it has offset more than 50 tonnes of CO2e in the past 12 months, significantly greater than its business carbon footprint.

Ginsberg said: "Our offsetting programme ensures that we offset more than we emit, making Served a carbon-negative business and the world’s first carbon-negative hard seltzer."

16 March 2022 - Bethany Whymark