In June 2023, one5c, the original optimistic newsletter about climate action, introduced Cool Beans, a newsletter dedicated to eating and cooking in a way that’s as sustainable as it is delicious.
Joe Brown, the publisher of one5c, shared the motivations behind launching this innovative newsletter. “We wanted to continue one5c‘s incredibly successful exploration of sustainable eating without overwhelming readers who wanted the variety of subjects that our canonical newsletter offers,” he said.
‘The internet has countless recipe blogs and many sites that explore climate solutions, but few (if any) publications live at the intersection of those two worlds.’
Brown emphasized that the decision to create Cool Beans stemmed directly from paying attention to the interests of the publication’s audience. “Of all the subjects one5c explored in its first year-and-a-half, food prompted the most engagement from our readers,” Brown explained. “It was clear that they were (sorry) hungry for more of this, so we decided to spin off a food vertical for those who wanted it.”
As one5c’s editor-in-chief Corinne Iozzio pointed out, food choices play a critical role in combating climate change. “When you look at the areas of a person’s day-to-day life where individual actions can add up to the biggest change, food choices top the list,” said Iozzio. “Taken together, eating more plant-based and wasting less food can trim a person’s planet-warming potential by 12%.”
Cool Beans stands apart from similar publications in how it merges culinary advice with climate solutions. “The internet has countless recipe blogs and many sites that explore climate solutions, but few (if any) publications live at the intersection of those two worlds,” said Iozzio. This positioning allows Cool Beans to fill a niche, providing readers with actionable cooking advice that is both practical and impactful.
The creation of Cool Beans is also a reflection of Fragment Media Group’s commitment to reaching underserved audiences. Iozzio noted the lack of resources available for people interested in reducing their personal climate impact through sustainable eating, particularly in ways that are more accessible than adopting a fully plant-based diet. “Cool Beans is not a vegan publication, which is a choice we made for a couple of reasons: First, going fully plant-based isn’t realistic for everyone; second, not all animal products are created equal if we’re talking about emissions,” she explained. “Eggs, for example, only produce a shade more greenhouse gases than tofu on a pound-per-pound basis. And oysters can actually improve the environment where they’re farmed.”
Brown emphasized that Cool Beans aims to offer readers practical, actionable advice. “Sure, cutting meat out of your diet makes a massive impact on your personal emissions, but so does choosing mussels over beef—and there’s nothing vegan about that.”
