3 Innovative Beverage Companies Making a Positive Impact on Our Health and the Environment

November 18, 2024

The bev­er­age indus­try is expe­ri­enc­ing a sig­nif­i­cant shift toward health­i­er, sus­tain­able alter­na­tives as con­sumers demand more nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents and clean-label bev­er­ages. 

Com­pa­nies like Chameleon Cof­fee, ZICO, Liq­uid Death, and SYSTM Foods are lead­ing this move­ment, offer­ing func­tion­al, bet­ter-for-you options. This bet­ter-for-you bev­er­age sec­tor, val­ued at $89.25 bil­lion in 2021, is expect­ed to grow over 7% annu­al­ly until 2030.

As the demand for health­i­er alter­na­tives grows, this shift goes beyond cut­ting sug­ar or alco­hol – it’s about choos­ing options that sup­port bet­ter out­comes for our health and our plan­et.

Ground­Force Cap­i­tal is at the fore­front of this move­ment, back­ing com­pa­nies that pio­neer bet­ter-for-you alter­na­tives. Let’s dive into how these com­pa­nies are shap­ing the indus­try and explore oppor­tu­ni­ties for scal­ing busi­ness­es to cap­i­tal­ize on this grow­ing trend.

Better for you (and the planet)

Gen­er­a­tion Z and Mil­len­ni­als have been increas­ing­ly swap­ping sug­ary drinks and alco­hol for options like coconut water, plant-based ener­gy drinks, nat­u­ral­ly sweet­ened bev­er­ages, and kom­bucha. 

Even ener­gy drinks are tak­ing a back seat with more aware­ness around health risks. Recent reports have high­light­ed high lev­els of caf­feine and sug­ar – up to 34 grams per ounce – which can con­tribute to anx­i­ety, car­diac issues, and sug­ar crash­es.

Exces­sive sug­ar con­sump­tion has been direct­ly linked to dia­betes, obe­si­ty, and heart dis­ease. The Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion rec­om­mends a max­i­mum of 36 grams of sug­ar per day for adult males, and many pop­u­lar bev­er­ages exceed this amount in just a sin­gle serv­ing. 

The impact of sug­ar on heart dis­ease is well-doc­u­ment­ed, with Har­vard T.H. Chan School of Pub­lic Health pro­fes­sor Dr. Frank Hu stat­ing, “The high­er the intake of added sug­ar, the high­er the risk for heart dis­ease.”

Health-con­scious shop­pers are not just seek­ing bet­ter nutri­tion; they also care deeply about the envi­ron­men­tal impact of their pur­chas­es. A McK­in­sey study found that over 60% of con­sumers would pay more for sus­tain­able pack­ag­ing. 

The shift toward sustainability

Stud­ies show that health-con­scious shop­pers pri­or­i­tize the envi­ron­men­tal impact of prod­ucts more than any oth­er seg­ment of the con­sumer mar­ket. This con­ver­gence of per­son­al health and plan­e­tary health is dri­ving demand for clean­er, bet­ter-for-you options.

Research by NielsenIQ found that 78% of Amer­i­can con­sumers report that sus­tain­abil­i­ty is impor­tant to them and 60% of them would be will­ing to pay more for a sim­i­lar prod­uct if it meant choos­ing a brand with bet­ter envi­ron­men­tal, social, and gov­er­nance (ESG) ini­tia­tives. 

Com­pa­nies with estab­lished ESG claims have aver­aged 8% high­er cumu­la­tive growth rel­a­tive to their peers who make no such claims. Per­haps no seg­ment has felt this real­i­ty more than the bev­er­age indus­try.

This grow­ing push for dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed options has estab­lished a defin­able sec­tor of the con­sumer mar­ket, with B2C sales in con­sumer food and bev­er­ages des­ig­nat­ing “healthy drinks” as a stand­alone cat­e­go­ry. Data col­lect­ed by Grand View Research esti­mat­ed the healthy bev­er­age mar­ket size at $89.25 bil­lion in 2021, with an expect­ed annu­al com­pound growth rate of over 7% until 2030.

Inno­v­a­tive options have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to quite lit­er­al­ly shape the future of a nascent indus­try. Ground­Force Cap­i­tal is deter­mined to see a health­i­er tomor­row come to fruition by part­ner­ing with and invest­ing in com­pa­nies that embody a com­mit­ment to bet­ter.

Companies committed to being better

Ground­Force Capital’s port­fo­lio includes com­pa­nies that set a high stan­dard in the bet­ter-for-you bev­er­age indus­try. 

ZICO

In 2004, ZICO helped to cre­ate a new bev­er­age indus­try cat­e­go­ry: coconut water. The com­pa­ny was found­ed by Mark Ram­pol­la, Ground­Force Capital’s Man­ag­ing Part­ner, with three key goals in mind:

1. Bring the hydra­tion ben­e­fits of coconut water to a glob­al audi­ence
2. Build an icon­ic brand that embod­ies nat­ur­al, healthy liv­ing
3. Cre­ate a mul­ti-bil­lion-dol­lar indus­try that’s envi­ron­men­tal­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly sus­tain­able 

Sourc­ing coconuts from South­east Asia, ZICO ensures all coconut meat and husks are repur­posed, con­tribut­ing to a zero-waste process. ZICO’s com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­i­ty has made it a pio­neer in the func­tion­al hydra­tion mar­ket.

Liquid Death

Liq­uid Death is dis­rupt­ing the mas­sive, stag­nant water cat­e­go­ry with a cut­ting-edge brand on a mis­sion to offer water in infi­nite­ly recy­clable alu­minum cans. With its bold mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy and a com­mit­ment to ocean recov­ery efforts, the com­pa­ny has grown rapid­ly in the CPG bev­er­age space, becom­ing a now $1.4 bil­lion brand. Their growth sig­ni­fies a shift toward sus­tain­able, health-con­scious alter­na­tives – ones that are bet­ter for both peo­ple and the plan­et.

SYSTM Foods

With a focus on func­tion­al bev­er­ages, com­pa­nies under SYSTM Foods offer well­ness-dri­ven options. Chameleon Cof­fee, the lead­ing cold brew con­cen­trate brand, is built on uncom­pro­mis­ing stan­dards for organ­ic, fair-trade cof­fee, while Reb­bl’s func­tion­al drinks incor­po­rate adap­to­gens and eth­i­cal­ly sourced ingre­di­ents to offer both health ben­e­fits and social impact. Rebbl’s col­lab­o­ra­tion with Not for Sale, an anti-human traf­fick­ing orga­ni­za­tion, exem­pli­fies how com­pa­nies can tie prod­uct inno­va­tion with a mis­sion to sup­port glob­al caus­es.

Sim­i­lar­ly, Humm Kom­bucha has rede­fined kom­bucha by scal­ing its oper­a­tion while remain­ing com­mit­ted to sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The com­pa­ny uses recy­clable alu­minum in its pack­ag­ing and has cut water con­sump­tion by 30% through improved brew­ing process­es, show­ing that sus­tain­abil­i­ty can scale effec­tive­ly with demand.

What’s on the horizon?

As the bet­ter-for-you bev­er­age indus­try con­tin­ues to expand, new oppor­tu­ni­ties are emerg­ing for inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies to enter the mar­ket. 

Boxed Water leads with its eco-friend­ly approach, using 92% recy­cled car­tons and sourc­ing local­ly to reduce envi­ron­men­tal impact. Malk sets itself apart with its sim­ple, trans­par­ent label­ing – using min­i­mal ingre­di­ents with no oils, gums, or addi­tives – and appeals to con­sumers seek­ing puri­ty in plant-based milk.

NOOMA takes the ener­gy drink cat­e­go­ry by storm with a com­mit­ment to “No More Arti­fi­cials,” offer­ing high­ly func­tion­al bev­er­ages with zero arti­fi­cial ingre­di­ents and added sug­ar. NOOMA’s cer­ti­fied B‑Corp sta­tus high­lights its ded­i­ca­tion to a broad­er mis­sion of health and well­ness, prov­ing that busi­ness­es can be both prof­itable and respon­si­ble.

The bottom line

With a ris­ing demand for bev­er­ages that offer clean ingre­di­ents and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, there’s plen­ty of room for inno­v­a­tive brands to carve out their place in this $89B+ mar­ket. 

At Ground­Force Cap­i­tal, we believe inno­va­tion and respon­si­bil­i­ty go hand in hand. We are com­mit­ted to invest­ing in com­pa­nies that tack­le the most press­ing issues tied to human and plan­e­tary health, dri­ving mean­ing­ful progress and shap­ing a bet­ter future for all.

Cov­er Pho­to Source: Anas­ta­sia Shuraeva/Pexels