Galion distillery creates hand sanitizer from high-proof alcohol

Distilleries and pharmacies in Vermont have begun making hand sanitizer, in order to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Although this does take away from the typical function of the businesses and doesn't result in revenue, the state is helping to cover costs of production so that all bottles can be donated to emergency responders, grocery store workers, and other at-risk people.

As restaurants look at a myriad of ways to enhance the cleanliness of their businesses in light of the coronavirus pandemic, a distillery in North Carolina chose to shift their focus from gin-making to making and distributing hand sanitizer. The owners of the distillery are also training neighboring businesses "how to use the solution responsibly," and then donating bottles of the sanitizer after they complete the session.

Several distilleries across the U.S. are shifting gears from producing beer to instead producing hand sanitizer to play a part in addressing the coronavirus pandemic. Combatting the shortage of the product, while also promoting better hygiene, distilleries are experimenting with recipes based on federal and World Health Organization guidelines and giving the product to patrons as well as donating to charities.

Many Chicago distilleries are utilizing their abundance of high-proof alcohol to create hand sanitizer to fill a gap in the market due to the coronavirus pandemic. While a portion of the product is being donated to first responders and frontline workers, this new business endeavor is also helping distillery owners keep their employees on payroll and their businesses open.

As COVID-19 challenges businesses around the world, two Malaysian social enterprise companies have seen success in shifting their offerings. The Biji-biji Initiative, a fashion producer linked with the grassroots Social Textiles movement, quickly pivoted to making face shields and have been able to keep people employed while making the PPE for essential workers. PichaEats, a catering company, quickly shifted to making and delivering food for families and healthcare workers, delivering over 20,000 meals so far.

To save dozens of restaurants in San Francisco during the coronavirus lockdowns, a restaurant owner launched an organization that "provides monthly contracts to its restaurant partners to cook meals for underserved populations." The organization, which has 160 restaurant partners so far, helps fill the gaps left by the government-funded Paycheck Protection Program.

A tension fabric structures manufacturing company in Maine has repurposed their facility and transformed their local workforce to create grade-one medical masks for the local hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic. Because the company uses only U.S.-made materials, they have been able to avoid supply chain interruptions and now plans to continue making masks as part of their standard business model even after the pandemic passes.

The owners of an iconic pomade and Chicano hipster fashion manufacturing factory in Santa Ana, California have made the switch to hand sanitizer manufacturing in an attempt to reemploy furloughed employees during the coronavirus pandemic. Functioning like a start-up, their new product goes to hospitals, postal workers, UPS drivers, and cashiers and helps to spread the message to the Latino community that this virus should be taken seriously.

Bia Saldanha works with community members in Brazil to tap trees in the Amazon for rubber as a way to create sustainable income and discourage other practices like cattle farming and logging that has led to deforestation. While the locals were hesitant at first, she worked with the shoe company Veja to pay them more than the market rate. Now, Veja uses about 340 tons of natural rubber annually and works with 10 rubber tapper groups in eight municipalities. "We are not just buying rubber," she says. "We are also paying for forest conservation."

To the two social entrepreneurs who founded nonprofit Feedback, the massive amounts of food waste being tossed into landfills in the UK and USA each year was a mounting challenge that required a creative solution. So they founded Toast Ale, a craft brewing company that not only reduced food waste by using unwanted bread from bakeries to brew their ales, but helps bring awareness to the issue through the brand, which is growing in popularity.