In Australia, Kirin’s XXXX beer brand has raised AUD10,000 (US$7,130) to support the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, through a partnership with the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys rugby league team. A total of AUD2 from every can of XXXX sold at the Cowboys’ home opener game this season was pledged to the foundation, to support research on strengthening the heat resistance of corals in the Great Barrier Reef.
Lotte Chilsung partnered with the Korea National Park Service (KNPS) in South Korea for a marine ecosystems conservation project, beginning with a clean-up operation on Geomundo Island. Company employees joined KNPS officials for beach cleaning and tidal rock restoration, collecting around 1 ton of marine debris such as discarded plastic bags and fishing nets. Lotte is also continuing its efforts to establish a circular plastic economy under a business agreement with KNPS and other national organisations, and recently donated 2,000 bottles of water to the service’s parks recycling scheme.
Lotte Chilsung is also on track to meet its ‘2030 Plastic Reduction Roadmap’ targets, having reduced its plastic emissions by 3,000 tons in 2025.
Suntory Global Spirits parent Suntory Holdings announced a AUD1m (US$713,000) partnership in Australia with Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, to support research into the impact of climate change on water quantity and quality. The tie-up will bridge global ecohydrological science with local validation based on evidence such as data collected from Suntory’s recently-established water replenishment project in the Brisbane River region.
The findings will be applied to model water flows and support effective stewardship and long-term water sustainability, both locally and more broadly. “These systems are sentinels of what is happening in their catchments,” said ARI. “They are the ‘canary in the coal mine’, ringing the alarm bell for where human activities and climate change are causing the greatest stress on our ecosystems.”
