By The Tahona Society Editorial Team
A Quick Look at La Mata: Winner of the Tahona Society Competition 2021
The Tahona Society Competition 2023: Making Social Impact in the Bartending Industry
The Tahona Society Competition 2023 returns, from June 26 to 30 in Guadalajara. One of this year’s novelties is a fair featuring entrepreneurs who will be presenting their current sustainable projects, along with their success stories, in order to inspire contestants. Also featured is the one and only Julio Bermejo, world ambassador of quality tequila, who will share his experience with Tommy’s Margarita. Be the first to know what the 12 global final projects are about, and how they contribute sustainable positive environmental impact within the bartending industry.
- Industry Solar is a scheme designed to unlock solar-powered energy for small and medium business owners in Australia by connecting them to solar farms via ‘solar communities.’ The idea is to equip hospitality operators with available renewable power sources, and contribute to the acceleration of Australia’s shift to renewable energy — all while returning money to the hands of small businesses.
- Currently a business can pay extra for renewable energy through an energy retailer, but Industry Solar is proposing a way for these businesses to pay less in the medium term while also knowing that they are helping drive the shift to renewable energy.
- The benefits of this plan are multifaceted, business owners who make the initial contribution will go on to have multi-year savings that are not tied to a particular physical venue. Customers benefit by identifying participating venues and spending money on businesses that share their values.
- Glass to Gold creates an efficient and beneficial system to reduce, recycle, reuse and resell glass for the benefit of the local environment and community.
- The plan centers around investing in a large-scale glass crushing unit that converts glass bottles into a fine sand with a variety of uses and even commercial resale value. The machine reduces the bulk of the glass by 90% which hugely minimizes the number of loads required to be transported by diesel garbage disposal trucks to either a plant where it is recycled or to a landfill.
- The sand from the discarded bottles is transferred to a glass blower that uses it to produce a signature recycled drinking glass. The resulting glasses will be purchased by bar venues to be used in house and also to be sold in local stores with a portion of the profits being directed to local community causes.
- Green Apple: Zero Glass Waste is a nonprofit project that charges a fee to hospitality businesses to collect and recycle glass, train staff and advise on commercial waste reduction.
- Additional revenues and employment are generated through the sale of glassware made from waste glass. The waste glass, crushed into sand, can also be sold for use in construction and sandblasting (industrial cleaning).
- Green Apple creates jobs in the local circular economy and reduces the environmental footprint of tourism through innovative waste management.
- The Art of Human Sustainability is a system to better incorporate, map and execute routines supporting the psychosocial work environment as part of daily HSE (health, safety and environment) plans of a service industry company.
- Managers can easily incorporate this system into an already up-and-running HSE plan.
- The Art of Human Sustainability system includes a mapping of employee wellness and focus areas based on the results. It also provides a daily checklist, which covers such things as monitoring cooler temperatures, checking for fire hazards, cleaning routines and so on.
- IN BLOOM leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to create personalized wellness plans that cater to the unique needs, preferences and goals of each individual involved in any hospitality venue.
- The platform also offers data analytics tools that provides valuable insights to workplaces, allowing them to create a more supportive and mentally healthy culture.
- The Bar Guru is an App that allows any hospitality career driven person or bartender to connect via a country-specific app to create a profile and track and share their journey as well as receive guidance and assistance along the way.
- This app has four main pillars of support for users: career growth, finance, education and community.
- Semilla Baja Lab specializes in hand-crafted, non-alcoholic spirits.
- It is based in the small agricultural town of El Pescadero in Baja California Sur Mexico, where they have their own biodynamic agriculture garden and where they grow, distill and bottle their spirits.
- Semilla Baja Lab distributes their products to local cocktail bars, restaurants and luxury resorts, and use their platform to do community outreach events, like fundraisers for local organizations and alcohol awareness pop-ups for the local middle school.
- Natural Beach Bar is a social venture consisting of a sustainable beach bar. It transforms negative environmental impacts into positive ones by the installation and use of solar panels on the top of gazebos and by promoting environmental care and awareness among its customers.
- It also actively contributes to the local micro-economy by prioritizing zero- kilometer farmers/producers/providers.
- ‘Hot as ice’ is the proposed motto/name of the aforementioned social venture because it refers to the possibility of producing ice with the solar energy collected by its photovoltaic panels.
- Tahona Exchange is an innovative project that aims to reduce waste in the bar industry by providing a sustainable solution for barware.
- The project is based on the idea of exchanging used barware for new sustainable barware, creating a closed-loop system that reduces waste and promotes sustainability.
- Tahona Exchange works by partnering with bars and restaurants to collect their used barware, such as glassware, shakers, and strainers. The collected barware is then sent to a facility where it is cleaned, sterilized, and repackaged for reuse.
- The new sustainable barware offered by the Tahona Exchange is made from eco-friendly materials, such as recycled glass and bamboo, and is designed to be durable and long-lasting.
- Foot Print consists of collecting and recycling the PVC ‘core’ of used receipt paper rolls from local community restaurants and businesses, and repurposing them into a vertical, seven-tier, self-watering hydroponic garden.
- The recycled tubes will act as gemination pods and then support the root structure of the plant allowing it to grow and self-water from a series of watering pipes.
- These pipes are connected to one another and allow for a single point of watering which then feeds the rest of the vertical structure. These structures will be sold as kits with light assembly required by the customer.
- The goals for this project are: to create an aesthetic and functional hydroponic garden in modern living environments such as apartments; to promote self-sustaining, accessible and pesticide-free food production; to repurpose the used PVC cores, thereby reducing landfill waste; and to share Indigenous knowledge such as connecting to the land and harvesting traditional medicine.
- Drink Lab is about the evolution of the bar society — creating a place, specifically a lab, that will be a place for everyone.
- This lab will serve as a space for bartenders to experiment with new ingredients, techniques and flavors, ultimately leading to the creation of innovative and unique cocktails.
- This social venture aims to support the professional development and creativity of bartenders, while also contributing to the growth and innovation of the beverage industry.
- Focus on Health is currently a for-profit organization that advocates for the health and wellness of the food & beverage sector. Their mission is to help those who work in F&B to find ways of making this career a lifelong one, while also taking care of themselves.
- Focus on Health now wants to move into the nonprofit space so as to provide training and resources to the hospitality community free of cost. As the well-known motto says: “Hospitality starts with taking care of ourselves.”
