Production Sustainable Distilling
Issue 167 | Whisky Magazine 53
This page,
clockwise from
top left:
Boortmalt has
taken an industry-
leading position on
sustainable malting;
Nc’nean Distillery
uses a biomass boiler
and organic barley;
Ardnamurchan
won the title of
Sustainable Distillery
of the Year at Whisky
Magazine’s 2020
Icons of Whisky
Scotland.
emission-fuel systems for the haulage
vehicles that transport bulk spirit, malt,
and co-products, and electric HGVs are
even further away.
Nevertheless, the implementation
of charging infrastructure is slowly
helping to reduce ‘range anxiety’ and
will hopefully encourage both public
and commercial drivers to consider
β
Ǥ
While charging points are not yet
common sights at most distilleries, for
either business or tourist use, industry
sources suggest that we should see the
rate of installation increasing in the
coming year.
On water use, it is worth noting that
the Scottish Environment Protection
Agency (SEPA) states that the Scotch
whisky industry is ‘one of the most
consistently compliant sectors’ that it
regulates and, currently, 94.7 per cent
of Scotch whisky distilleries meet the
environmental rules. SEPA’s Scotch
Whisky Sector Plan aims to build on
this success and focuses on ‘unlocking
the potential of beyond-compliance
opportunities’, while also addressing
remaining issues.
Also worthy of mention is the Spirits
β
ȋȌǡ
a joint venture between SWA and
the Wine & Spirits Trade Association
ȋȌǤ
Agreement sector association for the
UK spirit drinks category and currently
includes 80 distilleries throughout
the UK, 75 of which are Scotch whisky
distilleries, and more than 20 Scotch
whisky companies participate in the
scheme. Participation enables sites to
β
Levy rates in return for meeting energy
β
Ǥ
for which there is publicly available
data (2007), the industry achieved a
β
ȋȌ
6.66 kWh per litre of pure alcohol (lpa)
against a target of 6.75 kWh/lpa. By
ʹͲͳͲǡ
β
β
ǡ
reduced by 18 per cent against the 1999
Ǥβ
of these measures should be published
by the end of 2020.
Unfortunately, not all areas have
seen progress. In particular, average
unit packaging weight has actually
increased by 2.4 per cent since the
2012 base line, against a target of 10
per cent reduction by 2020. This failure
is most likely driven by the abundance
of premiumisation programmes seen
across many Scotch whisky brands
in the past few years, which have
seen most move to heavier and more
elaborate packaging. In wholesale and
retail too, there have been few signs
of improvement, with most whisky
suppliers still shipping bottles in
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