It just takes a glance to see how serious the world’s climate predictions have become.
2024 saw the biggest ever jump in CO2 emissions. Greenland is losing about 30 million tonnes of ice every hour.
In the face of this, it’s bewildering how slow the drinks industry has been to embrace true sustainability.
“At Mouse Kingdom, we think that only radical sustainability action is good enough,” says Felix Crosse, Founder.
“I won’t get everything perfect at first and I don’t mind that. What’s important is to act: you learn and improve as you go along.”
Felix isn’t afraid of complexity. He is tackling almost every element of Mouse Kingdom’s sustainability impact simultaneously.
How?
Hesitation no: action yes
“100 per cent of our food and cardboard waste is recycled,” Felix explains.
“80 per cent of that is done onsite in our vermicomposting bins. The remainder we give to local allotment projects.
“We use a 100 per cent renewable energy supplier. We cancelled our general waste collection completely early in 2025, and we haven’t needed a collection since.
“We recycle 100 per cent of our plastic waste, travelling on ebikes ourselves to do it. We also travel on ebike to 95% of the events we attend, and deliver orders personally in Manchester.”
“We actively source food-waste for our Liqueurs, collecting waste citrus fruit from central Manchester every friday.
Impressive. What’s the deeper story?
Radical bravery for sustainable gain
More often than not, sustainability has a deeper twist, which many don’t understand.
For example, UK renewable energy is supplied on the promise and trust of the electricity company. UK drinks firms clearly can’t travel the company day in day out, checking where their power comes from.
Equally, Felix can ensure 100 per cent of Mouse Kingdom’s plastic is collected for recycling. It’s less easy for him to hop aboard a container ship – and check none of this plastic ends up on an Indian beach.
“We’re very much into controversial and challenging ideas,” says Felix.
“I am happy to raise negatives with our production, because that’s how we all improve. I’m always keen to see real numbers and radical honesty when it comes to sustainability performance.”
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The devil is in the detail
There’s a stunningly simple way to bypass worries on how and where recycling is done, or the true proportions of renewables built into energy contracting.
“If you use less energy in the first place, through more efficient lights, for example, and timing your production around when the grid draws more from renewables, you have more control and you’re less affected by highs and lows in the UK’s energy market,” says Felix.
“I’m pondering onsite solar generation options. And on plastics, when I can totally avoid using them at all, there will be no concerns over how or where they are recycled.”
A radical mindset for courageous action. People and planet take precedence over profit.
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