The Social: 'We're Endangered Too' Mocktail Coolers

Save Our Bees, Save Our Trees and Save Our Seas: When you visit The Social starting 12 October, these will be the three phrases to remember - the names of three new mocktails launched this month to help activists cultivate more plants and curb food waste in the Klang Valley.

The Social Group recently previewed its sustainability project, titled 'We're Endangered Too,' as part of ongoing local efforts to combat climate change.

Zero waste advocate Melissa Tan introduced The Social's initiative by highlighting how climate change has impacted Malaysia in recent years, linked to events such as floods in Kelantan and Penang.

The Social's three new coolers are named after three pressing ecological concerns; priced at RM15 each, all three use Trigona honey, produced by stingless bees nurtured in Malaysian farms.

Fifty percent of the proceeds from the beverages will be forwarded to the Free Tree Society (freetreesociety.org) and The Lost Food Project (thelostfoodproject.org), two local organisations that have been giving away free plants to the public and running a food bank respectively.

The three mocktails have been beautifully crafted: Save Our Bees is a zesty blend that includes yellow capsicum juice, freshly squeezed lemon juice and passion fruit syrup - its mission is to remind us that bees pollinate crops and are vital for the production of fruits, nuts, coffee, chocolate and more. Save Our Trees is creamier, with pandan juice, caramel syrup and condensed milk, meant to underscore the role of trees in preserving our worldwide environmental balance. Save Our Seas is a reviving medley of ginger mint tea, mint syrup and lemongrass, sparklingly clean and pure - like how we'd want our oceans to be.

Under the initiative, The Social Group will mobilise The Lost Food Project's efforts to rescue surplus food that would otherwise prematurely end up in landfills and redistribute these items to over 50 charities, while the Group’s food waste is converted into compost by its partner Eco Foodsoft and then donated to Free Tree Society to plant trees (which is the easiest way to tackle the climate crisis).

At the preview, Tracey Wardhaugh, Head of Communications for The Lost Food Project, detailed how the project currently provides about 40,000 meals a week. Its efforts help reduce landfills and prevent an average of 19 tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere every week.

Note: The Lost Food Project will also be conducting its own #MYCleanPlate challenge throughout October, in a bid to mitigate food wastage for World Food Day 2019. Eat all the food on your plate, post a selfie with the polished-clean plate on social media, and tag a friend with the hashtags #MYCleanPlate, #WFD2019, and #ZeroWaste.

President of Free Tree Society, Baida Hercus, also took us through the importance of empowering people in the battle against climate change, having trained 13,000 environmental stewards and giving away 33,000 trees to be planted. The society gives away trees for free; at The Social's preview, members of the media were invited to help themselves to curly-leaved aralias to care for at home.

The Social can be found at Bangsar, 163 Mont Kiara, Publika, Desa ParkCity, TREC and Empire Subang (thesocial.com.my)

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com