In the Spirit of Sustainability
How distillers are reducing their carbon footprint throughout the production process
We are in the midst of a climate crisis, and sustainability is on everyone's agenda. Consumers are increasingly keen to invest in products that tread lightly on the planet, and producers are under increasing pressure to prove their eco-credentials. With the exception of a few vanguards, the spirits industry has lagged behind other sectors when it comes to sustainability and, as brands race to catch up and outperform one another, the risk of greenwashing increases.
Whether intentional or accidental, greenwashing—the act of making unsubstantiated or overstated green claims, can both mislead consumers and distract from more significant environmental issues. In September 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code was launched, listing six principles to make it easier for businesses to comply with the law, including that green claims “must consider the full life cycle of the product”. Similarly they remind shoppers to “think about the bigger picture” and “consider the overall environmental impact” of a product.
It sounds pretty obvious but, unlike the food industry, many consumers—and perhaps even some brands, are disconnected from what spirits really are and how they are made.
At their heart, spirits are agricultural products, albeit highly processed ones. All spirits are created from agricultural raw materials - whether that be agave, sugarcane, grains or potatoes - and most are produced from monoculture crops. Such monocrops can become reliant on chemicals made from fossil fuels, such as pesticides and fungicides, which contaminate air, soil and water and can also decrease biodiversity.
According to research from spiritsEUROPE farming contributes around 25-30% of the total carbon footprint of a spirit, and yet it is a subject rarely acknowledged, particularly by gin producers. Rather than make their own alcohol from scratch (a process which is both energy intensive and incredibly expensive) most producers purchase their grain neutral spirit, meaning their story - and the one they promote to their consumers - begins with their botanicals.
There’s nothing wrong with talking about botanicals - indeed that’s what determines the flavour and character of a gin - but talking only about botanicals from a sustainability point of view is one of the main ways of greenwashing a gin. Any impact from growing botanicals on site, foraging for them in the wild (a claim which should always be substantiated given the damage foraging can cause if not done responsibly) or rescuing them from food waste, pales into insignificance in the face of the carbon footprint from the fermentables that create the base spirit in the first place.
Truly eco-friendly gin distillers are finding different ways to reduce that carbon footprint from using locally sourced and single-estate grain as they do at Cooper King and Ramsbury Distillery respectively, to organic and regenerative farming methods as practised by The Oxford Artisan Distillery.
Other producers are creating their spirits using fundamentally more sustainable fermentables. Arbikie Estate’s Nàdar Vodka is made from peas which take nitrogen out of the air and fix it in the ground, removing the need for synthetic fertiliser and mitigating its negative impact on the environment. Meanwhile at Greensand Ridge Distillery they specialise in producing fruit brandies and rums using surplus produce from local farmers that is not suitable for supermarkets and would otherwise go to waste.
Regardless of the raw material used, processing it requires high temperatures and huge amounts of energy; the emissions from which account for approximately another 30-40% of the carbon footprint of the spirit.
The challenge of decarbonising larger distilleries, and those which distill on gas, is not to be underestimated with much of the technology, such as green hydrogen, still in its infancy and barriers to adoption including safety concerns (hydrogen is extremely flammable) and prohibitively high costs. The Scotch Whisky Association has nonetheless set a self-imposed target of net zero emissions from its own operations by 2040. Leading from the front is Nc’nean who use locally sourced wood chips to fire the biomass boiler which powers the stills on which they produce their unpeated whisky. Any additional power they require comes in the form of 100% renewable electricity; often the best option for small and medium sized distilleries—but beware anyone who talks solely about solar panels, as they are rarely installed in large enough arrays to power the entire distillation process.
In addition to being energy intensive, spirit production also demands huge volumes of water for farming, fermentation, cooling, and dilution. The Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) found that in 2017 distilleries used about 33L of water to produce one litre of spirit. With the World Economic Forum predicting that, at the current rate, there will be a 40% gap between global water supply and demand by 2030, this is yet another area of distillation that requires immediate attention.
Reducing the amount of water required at the farming stage is challenging, but the founders behind Avallen stumbled across a way. Setting out to produce the world’s most sustainable spirit brand, they settled on making Calvados when they discovered that apples are the most environmentally friendly ingredient to distill. Not only that, but the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) designation of Calvados also prohibits the artificial irrigation of orchards, meaning that producers must rely on rainwater alone. Consequently a single 700ml bottle of Avallen is made with 1.2L of water; 70-95% less than other spirit categories.
If reducing water use during farming raw materials is a challenge, it is next to impossible in fermentation and dilution. However, cooling water - required to condense alcohol vapours back to liquid, and the largest component of a distillery’s water use profile - can be significantly mitigated through conservation measures such as closed-loop systems that recycle and re-cool the water instead of allowing it to go down the drain. According to BIER, eliminating the impact of cooling water can reduce water use to about 11L for every litre of spirit produced, saving money as well as reducing impact on the environment.
Once the spirit is distilled and diluted it needs to be bottled, with glass being the ideal material as it is infinitely recyclable. However, as another process which requires huge amounts of energy, it also contributes to a significant part of the carbon footprint of a spirit; approximately 18-20%. The shift to lighter, more sustainable bottles could therefore have a real impact; however more transparency is still required. It’s simply not enough to claim a glass bottle is recyclable. Producers need to be clearer about the content of recycled glass, and how far the bottle has been shipped from maker to spirits producer to truly understand its impact.
And what about when the bottle is (sadly) empty? Glass is both recyclable and refillable but, although there are advantages to lightweight refill pouches, a question mark remains over the introduction of new single use plastic however well intentioned. A far better and more sustainable alternative are aluminium refill cans, as pioneered by Victory Distillery, which are lighter than glass, plastic free, and more easily and infinitely recyclable.
The finished product, the bottle of spirit, is the first opportunity for a brand to convey its ethos and identity to a consumer, which is probably why we have seen so much more innovation in the packaging of spirits, rather than in the production of them. However, as processed agricultural products, spirits rely on successful crop yields and are also particularly susceptible to climate change.
Makers must, therefore, commit to reducing their impact on the planet at every step of production, to ensure that not only their spirits are sustainable but that their businesses are too.
