2023/24 IM PACT REPORT
drink has an impact
on our livE s and th E plac E s wE livE .
Industrial food production threatens biodiversity and contributes 26%1 of greenhouse gases causing climate collapse. Every year 10 million tonnes2 of plastic drink bottles choke the marine life in our oceans.
And farmers in developing nations are among the lowest-paid workers.
Depressing? It doesnʼt have to be.
Taking action makes a difference.
Like choosing a soft drink made with organic and Fairtrade ingredients by a company that takes responsibility for improving growersʼ lives and preserving natural resources.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE childrE n go to school.
i n 2023, k arma d rinks provid E d bursari E s for 150 childr E n, E ducating a total of 910 kids with th E h E lp of p E opl E drinking k arma c ola, g ing E r E lla g ing E r a l E , lE mony
lE monad E , r azza r aspb E rry lE monad E and all our oth E r karma drinks .
Thatʼs nearly a thousand young students, mostly girls, who otherwise wouldnʼt have been able to attend primary or secondary school. Many choose to stay longer and pursue higher education.
This is where we began. Itʼs the first thing the people supplying our cola nut chose to fund with money from the first bottles of Karma Cola we sold.
Empowering young women through education, especially in Africa3, makes a massive impact.
3. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE tEachE rs
tEach, and thE morE schools g Et built .
Getting to school is a great start but education requires trained teachers and classrooms.
i n 2023, k arma buil t an additional thr EE n E w classrooms and fund E d two mor E
There are currently 780 children attending four schools and taught by ten teachers supported by Karma Drinks in Sierra Leone.
The new classrooms were built before the rains came.
Why is this a big deal?
It’s impossible to build in the torrential rainy season, and it’s a long way for primary school-aged children to walk the 12 kilometres to the closest school, especially when it’s raining.
Now, they can go to school closer to home, stay drier on the shorter walk, and concentrate on learning.
Karma Drinks provides salaries for ten community teachers, builds schools and classrooms, and supplies school furniture and educational materials.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE young wom En go to univE rsity .
Educating women is one of the best ways to help a community develop, and an effective way to fight climate change 4 .
Ev E ry y E ar k arma support 150 girls through school and so far fiv E of th E s E young wom E n hav E
graduat E d to att E nd u niv E rsity.
Providing bursaries and encouragement helped them become the first-ever undergraduates from the villages we work alongside. They have become role models, inspiring the younger girls in the community, and the numbers are rising.
It doesn’t stop there.
On International Womenʼs Day, we donated 100% of our UK profits to fund more young women like Hawa Ali to go to University.
4. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Hawa is the first of five young women who have completed their primary and secondary education with the help of Karma Drinks and made it to university.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE roads & bridgEs g Et built .
We have a simple rule when it comes to offering assistance: ask. Our friends in Sierra Leone understand what they need far better than we do.
When we asked how to spend the money made from selling the first bottles of Karma Drinks, they said, educate our young women whose parents can’t afford it, and help us build a bridge.
Thatʼs what we did.
t hat was ov E r t E n y E ars ago. s inc E th E n, w E ’ v E h E lp E d build mor E roads, bridg E s, and community faciliti E s. i n 2023, w E built two n E w bridg E s, nin E in total, conn E cting s E v E n local communiti E s.
Bridges and roads create access for trade and social mobility. We provide tools so the community can improve the roads to their villages and make them passable, helping trade and facilitating access to health treatment and other social connections.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE EntrE prEn Eurs gEt fundE d.
b y cl E v E rly s E izing an opportunity to support th E ir community during th E Ebola crisis, th E E fforts of four local wom E n hav E inspir E d 80 mor E villag E E ntr E pr E n E urs.
Along with leadership and business management training, these loans enable the community to trade and become economically independent.
Karma Drinks also purchased a new truck for local farmers.
Now, anyone with a good business idea can access funding with micro-loans for small enterprises.
Getting crops to market efficiently has doubled and sometimes tripled their average income. In its first year, the truck ran at a profit, enabling each village to invest the returns in local development projects.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE livEs arE savE d.
Another enterprising woman took the initiative to loan her neighbour money for medical care, giving rise to a social health fund using the same structure as the entrepreneur’s revolving micro-loans.
Villagers often lend neighbours money to get to a hospital and buy medicine. We saw an opportunity for a social healthcare fund everyone could access.
i n th E past y E ar th E h E alth fund provid E d lif E changing car E for 18 mor E p E opl E , a total of 169 ov E r thr EE y E ars.
The communities elect a committee to manage the fund, decide on loans and oversees repayments ; which includes a guarantor to ensure loans are repaid so the fund endures, and a commitment to topping it up by 2 to 5% each year.
Karma Drinks Social Health Fund reaches eight communities. In 2023, we enabled healthcare for 169 people. In the photo, Fanta Koroma from The Karma Drinks Foundation consults with one of the fund‘s beneficiaries.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE pEoplE
g Et
to drink clEan watE r.
UN and Unesco warn that water “scarcity is becoming endemic”. Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right and the focus of aid.
When we saw many of the village pumps provided by this aid were broken, we wondered if teaching people to maintain them might be a better solution than replacing them.
Our enquiries led us to a woman who operated a well oiled water pump, and we asked her to train the rest of the communities to keep theirs in good working condition.
w ithout having to buy n E w pumps or dig n E w w E lls, th E brok E n pumps hav E b EE n r E pair E d and maintain E d, and s E v E n villag E s now hav E cl E an drinking wat E r.
Supporting people to manage their resources sustainably with whatever help we can provide beyond supplying money is proving to be very effective altruism.
Pumping water from one of the seven reconditioned and well-maintained water pumps.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE wE can protEct thE natural world.
The rainforest where our cola grows, like the land all our ingredients are farmed, is our responsibility too.
Grower communities in Sierra Leone protect the rainforest by preventing hunting of endangered species, rehabilitating forest farms, and providing training for sustainable farming. It’s one of the reasons we work with them.
Sourcing organic and Fairtrade ingredients farming practice that respects natural resources and restores soil health so biodiversity can flourish.
Every drink purchased from karmadrinks.co.uk automatically sets our friends at One Tribe into action to save trees in the Amazon Rainforest and offset the carbon footprint of your fizzy drink.
These endeavours are guided by the United Nations Framework for Climate Change and contribute to meeting all but three of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
A rare sighting of a Diana Monkey in the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, part of the wider Tiwai Community on the edge of the Gola Rainforest where the cola in Karma Cola comes from.
thE morE karma you drink, thE lEss plastic Ends up in our ocEans & watE rways.
20,0005 plastic bottles are consumed every minute and less than 10%6 are ever recycled.
Soft drinks companies are the top global plastic polluters7, responsible for substantial amounts of plastic waste in the world’s oceans.
Not us.
Karma Drinks are packaged in recyclable glass and aluminium, and biodegradable cardboard.
We’re on a mission to increase the amount of recycled raw materials used in our packaging and eliminate the small amount of non-biodegradable plastic used in the labels on our bottles.
5. Ocean Conservancy, Plastic Pollution Coalition, World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
6. World Economic Forum, MIT Technology Review.
7. Plastic Pollution Coalition, Break Free From Plastic, Business Insider India
The pristine Moa River runs through the Tiwia communities supported by Karma Drinks in Sierra Leone. Protecting these waterways from pollution by respecting the rainforest as a source of non-timber products like cola nut is central to our work. In the photo are Michael Sallu (The Karma Drinks Foundation Project Manager), Albert Tucker (Chair of The Karma Drinks Foundation) and the Boma River Boat Crew.
thE morE karma you drink, thE morE mon Ey growE rs makE.
Along with the 1% of sales we set aside to fund the work you’ve been reading about, we pay a premium for organic and Fairtrade ingredients.
In 2023 this premium was over 2% of sales.
Added to the percentage of revenue that goes towards our Fairtrade licence fee, the money that goes back to our growers and the organisations supporting them is close to 4% of sales revenue.
This year that’s approximately $800,000 more for the ethically sourced, organic ingredients in our Karma Drinks, a better outcome for farmers of natural ingredients than opting to use the artificial flavours found in conventional soft drinks.
Which is better for you and for our growers.
Karma Drinks’ B Corp assessment is an audit of the overall impact of the company.
Our current score is 127.4 out of a maximum of 200.
The median for ordinary businesses is 50.9, and the threshold for qualification is 80.
To improve this score our challenge is to balance profit with purpose across our organisation’s governance, workers, the communities we work amongst, our environmental footprint, and our customers.
Governance
Governance measures our commitment to transparency, ethical practice, and stakeholder engagement.
17.1 is a strong score reflecting the solid foundation we’ve built for positive change that benefits both people and the planet.
We’re dedicated to improving these business practices. 17.1
Community
This is where Karma Drinks shines scoring an impressive 54.2 out of 60.
The number reflects our commitment to ethical sourcing, local community support, and impactful ways of working.
Dedication to making a positive difference in the communities we serve sets a high standard for corporate responsibility.
Workers
We’re working on worker well-being and engagement to create an inspiring and supportive workplace.
Although we’ve been around for 10 years we’re still a scrappy start-up. Our worker assessment, with a score of 21.3 out of a maximum of 40-50, reflects dedication to fair wages, safe conditions, and employee growth, and an opportunity to do a better job in this area.
Environment
This is one of the most difficult areas to have a positive impact as a consumer goods company and we’re motivated by our B Corp Environment score of 32.4 out of 50.
The rating highlights our dedication to sustainable sourcing, eco-friendly packaging, and carbon footprint reduction. We’re committed to continually improving this impact and making a positive ecological difference.
Customers
2.1 out of 5 reflects our commitment to product transparency, health, and social entrepreneurship.
We’re dedicated to enhancing customer engagement and ensuring our products continue to make a positive impact on people’s lives.
Albert and Rachel Wallace from The Karma Drinks Foundation share photos of Karma customers with farmers who supply the cola for Karma Cola.
Saahun Village welcoming a visit from The Karma Drinks Foundation.
it takEs a villagE.
In 2023, Karma Drinks continued to enhance the lives of growers and protect the ecology of the regions we source our ingredients.
Through our commitment to ethical sourcing and sustainable practices, we have positively impacted the communities in Sierra Leone, where our cola is grown.
This year, our initiatives have provided vital support to over 1,000 farming families. By ensuring fair trade practices and offering premium prices for their crops, we have helped improve their livelihoods and economic stability.
Our investment in community projects has facilitated the construction of new schools, ensuring that children in these communities have access to quality education.
Harvesting cola nut in the Gola Rainforest. Mr & Mrs Lansama — Mr Lansama’s medical treatment and recovery were made possible by the Social Healthcare fund established by The Karma Drinks Foundation.
We have also supported healthcare initiatives, providing essential medical supplies and health education to improve the overall well-being of these communities.
Ecologically, our sustainable farming practices have led to the conservation of local biodiversity. We have worked closely with farmers to implement agro-forestry techniques, which enhance soil health to create a more resilient agricultural ecosystem.
Our efforts in reforestation and organic farming methods have significantly reduced the carbon footprint of our supply chain, contributing to global efforts to combat climate change.
Children from the villages greet the team on a tour of the Tiwai Communities.
Albert Tucker (Chair of The Karma Drinks Foundation) and Mohamad Mediwa (Chairman of Tiwai Committee) arrive in Sahun village and are greeted by Chief Alhaji Koroma and the villagers.
We are proud of the positive impact achieved in 2023 and committed to further progress in the years to come.
Thank you for your continued support in making Karma Drinks a force for good.
Albert Tucker Chair, The Karma Drinks Foundation
Rice hulled in one of the threshing machines provided by the Foundation.
Farmers and their families ride on the new truck provided by The Karma Drinks Foundation to transport crops and supplies to the market and the villages.
Every Karma Drink sold has a positive impact on the lives of the people who grow our ingredients and the land they’re grown.
