Can you tell us a little bit about your background and inspiration behind your business?

For Will Brook, sustainability was always a part of his life without even fully realising it. Growing up on a family farm that was an early adopter of solar, recycling, waste reduction, water saving, integrated pest management, and regenerative farming. For Will this was the norm. But the real catalyst came when he attended an event put on by the CISL (Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership) also attended by many leading businesses in Australia. At this event there were some presentations on the performance of sustainable investments vs the “incumbents” (oil, gas, and mining) and it sparked Will to question – what should a business do with its profits? Usually it’s up to the shareholders to do what they wish with the profits of a business, but what if the business itself depended on the investment of its profits – and what if those profits were exclusively invested in environmentally sustainable projects? This is where the concept later to become We, the many* began. A business that creates amazing products that people love and make them feel better grows and the profits from that business are invested into environmentally sustainable businesses or projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere, the profits made from these investments comes back into the business to be invested further again. The better the business, the greater the impact. This is the model that We, the many* was built on. At home Will always had a passion for the value and efficacy of using food as medicine using many compounds (particularly curcumin) to positively impact his way of life. This was where the We, the many* model started. We, the many* stems from one core concept – responsibility. We are responsible for our own health, We are responsible for our impact on the planet. In creating We, the many* Will believes that “this is some of the most important impacts I can make in terms of the health of the environment, and the health of the people who eat our products.” The genesis of We, the many* went from an idea to reality when the Brook family, owners of both Brookfarm and Cape Byron Distillery came together with the two founders of Stone and Wood. “Brad and Jamie became involved as naturally as could be possible. We were having a coffee with Jamie and the We* concept came up in conversation. He was immediately engaged with the concept and the rest is history.”