BrewBix - Probably The Most Sustainable Dog Treats Out There

Meet Tom, the founder a sustainable an incredibly nutritious vegan pet food brand BrewBix. 

No, no, it's not a beer for dogs! Although the name and the raw material for the products comes from a brewery.

A couple of years ago, Tom was involved in setting up Villages Brewery in south London, which was producing about 1 tonne of "spent grain" every week. This highly nutritious ingredient can be used for animal feed, and most breweries give it or sell it to farms. For an urban brewery like Villages, it was pretty difficult, so Tom came up with an idea to upcycle the nutritious leftovers of brewing beer into healthy treats for dogs, and that is how BrewBix was set up."I had seen that it was something that had been done in America, but at the time, no one had really given it a go here," Tom says.

Until now, BrewBix has been the only brand turning brewers' grain into delicious dog biscuits. The grain is transported straight to the bakers who source other sustainable and local ingredients and make these unique dog treats. 

Tom believes sustainability can be a brilliant business model for changing the world. He says: "If people want to be more sustainable, then businesses need to give them viable options to do so. As these become more popular, then sustainability will become more mainstream. What profits the business can profit the planet and vice versa."

BrewBix do everything they can to minimise the carbon footprint of their dog treats. They not only upcycle nutritious waste materials as ingredients, but they also bake in carbon-neutral wood-fired ovens and use plastic-free, widely recycled packaging for their products. They measure all the carbon that was produced to make each batch of biscuits, and they offset twice that amount. So this means that their Bix are basically removing carbon from the Earth's atmosphere.

Are then the BrewBix products the most sustainable dog treats out there? "If they aren't then they must be very close!", says Tom. 

Although compostable packaging would do even better for his products, Tom explained to us that in reality, compostable packaging is very rarely composted. Most councils in the UK do not take away compostable packaging (they only take food waste), and as it needs to be composted at 50 degrees C, it won't break down in your compost heap in your garden. This means it generally goes to a landfill, where it will break down over about six months.  

"The problem with this is that the carbon is released into the atmosphere, rather than being retained in the "compost". And we know we don't want to be releasing more carbon", he says. 

"The best packaging is clearly no packaging at all! So if you can buy your Bix from your local zero waste store, then do that. But our next best solution is cardboard packaging that can be recycled in the paper stream. Everyone knows what to do with this, so nothing has to go to the landfill," he adds. 

When asked if vegan treats are, in general, better for the planet, he says: "This is hard to justify at the moment. Most of the meat that goes into "meaty" dog treats is from the leftovers of the food industry. So it isn't arguably bad for the planet to consume these, as it is using up waste material. However, it does demonstrate how some of the mainstream pet companies don't use the best ingredients in their treats!" 

He ads: "It is possible to have a nutritionally complete plant-based diet for dogs, but it isn't easy and requires supplementation. I strongly suggest getting expert help, or buying nutritionally complete vegan pet food. If you do it properly, then there is no reason why your dog won't be very happy!"

According to Tom, businesses have an onus to "make it easy to be good", but many people aren't yet ready to pay extra for a sustainable product, especially now, during the cost of living crisis. Consumers aren't willing to switch to a sustainable option if it is of lower quality. 

"I think it is up to the businesses to innovate and find ways to make sustainable products that match other products in terms of price and quality. If we can do that, then why wouldn't you make the sustainable choice?!," he says. 

Currently, BrewBix team is working on adding a few new treats to the range, but at the moment, the recipe is top secret. Until then, you can head to our supermarket, where you will find a 100g box of Bix - available to buy online.