Whisky - UK (2020-05)

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

…Šƒ‰‹‰–‘•ˆ‘”’ƒ••‡‰‡”–”ƒˆβ‹…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

‡”‰›ˆβ‹…‹‡…›‘’ƒ›ȋȌǡ

a joint venture between SWA and

the Wine & Spirits Trade Association

ȋȌǤ–‹•–Š‡Ž‹ƒ–‡Šƒ‰‡

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‹–ˆ”‘”‡†—…‡†Ž‹ƒ–‡Šƒ‰‡

Levy rates in return for meeting energy

‡ˆβ‹…‹‡…›–ƒ”‰‡–•Ǥ––Š‡Žƒ•–‹Ž‡•–‘‡

for which there is publicly available

data (2007), the industry achieved a

•’‡…‹β‹…‡‡”‰›…‘•—’–‹‘ȋȌ‘ˆ

6.66 kWh per litre of pure alcohol (lpa)

against a target of 6.75 kWh/lpa. By

ʹͲͳͲǡ’ƒ”–‹…‹’ƒ–•Šƒ†‹’”‘˜‡†

‡ˆβ‹…‹‡…›•‹‰‹β‹…ƒ–Ž›ǡ™‹–Š‡‡”‰›—•‡

reduced by 18 per cent against the 1999

„ƒ•‡Ž‹‡Ž‡˜‡ŽǤ’†ƒ–‡†⋉—”‡•ˆ‘”„‘–Š

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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