TOWARDS ZERO CARBON EMISSION

 GREEN SPIRITS – THE WHISKY DISTILLERIES DRIVING POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION

Scotch Whisky production, a process that is steeped in tradition, is rooted in three natural ingredients – cereals, water, and yeast. With a complex process from grain to glass, the industry is determined to reduce the impact of energy-intensive distilling operations, and preserve the natural environment that produces Scotch Whisky for another 530 years and further.

Across Scotland, large and small whisky distillers are re-examining and revising their production patterns and identifying where they can be more efficient with their resources. By adopting cutting-edge technologies, and working more collaboratively, these distilleries are not just adhering to stricter environmental standards but are also leading the way towards a sustainable and accountable spirits industry.

Building on this foundation, members of the Scotch Whisky Association, who are partners to the Race to Zero, are working hard to secure a sustainable future for the Scotch Whisky industry – ensuring its products are produced sustainably, traded globally and enjoyed responsibly.

Distilleries like Bruichladdich, Glentauchers, and Ardmore are not only moving towards net zero emissions but are also pioneering projects that leave a positive environmental footprint. The examples below highlight the industry’s commitment to creating a net zero and nature-positive world, showcasing innovative practices that go beyond compliance to benefitting the health of our natural world.

Bruichladdich – Packaging

On a mission to use less and to use better, Bruichladdich Distillery redesigned their flagship Classic Laddie bottle, taking a number of steps to reduce their impact and lower packaging emissions. The secondary tin which generated more than 1 kilogram of carbon dioxide (1.13 Kg) in the production process was removed; the optimised bottle design means that it is 32% lighter than the previous version, while still keeping the iconic aqua colour – now with an organic ink coating. The recycled glass content of the bottle has also risen to an average of 60%.

This lighter bottle means shipping is more efficient, with more bottles on every pallet that enters or and leaves the distillery – further cutting transport CO2 emissions when shipping on and off Bruichladdich’s home on Islay. By optimising a number of design choices, the new bottle reduces packaging CO2 emissions by 65%, and the distillery will continue reviewing all elements of the production process to reduce its impact across the entire value chain – from grain to glass.

The industry has become accustomed to believing that single malt Scotch whisky must come with outer packaging as a standard. Where most other spirits travel around the world in just the bottle, the majority of single malts have an elaborate or heavy secondary outer pack. That begs the question, why? Secondary packaging is not always necessary, and it certainly militates against sustainability.  

The distillery teamed with Glasgow-based design agency Thirst to redesign the bottle. In addition to Thirst’s contributions, Bruichladdich teamed up with a Swiss artist named Simon Berger. Berger is known for working with glass. In order to create the distillery’s latest iteration of The Classic Laddie, Berger shattered 15 panes of recyclable glass.

The distillery’s aim of creating more sustainable packaging comes at a highly critical time for the Earth’s warming climate. An article published in October 2021 stressed the grave impact global warming has had on Scotland’s distilleries. According to The Independent, droughts caused by climate change could reduce Scotland’s water supply by the 2080s, which could be catastrophic.

Whisky distilleries in the region typically use 61 billion litres of water a year, per the Independent. Severe droughts could force some scotch distilleries to stop producing the spirit in its entirety.

Fortunately, many Scotch distilleries have launched sustainability initiatives in the wake of the climate crisis. In January 2021, the Scotch Whisky Association committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2040, according to The Scotsman.

Chivas Brothers (Glentauchers) – Mechanical Vapour Recompression

By incorporating Mechanical Vapour Recompression technology in combination with its existing Thermal Vapour Recompression systems and hot water generation, Chivas Brothers’ Glentauchers Distillery in Speyside is able to recycle close to 100% of the steam produced in the falling film condenser and halve energy usage and carbon emissions.

The next step on Chivas Brothers’ journey towards achieving carbon neutral distillation by the end of 2026 is the rollout of these integrations across all its viable sites, including Glasgow’s Strathclyde Distillery. In the spirit of putting collaboration ahead of competition, the lessons learnt from the integration have also been made ‘open source’, with the intention that they benefit the Scotch whisky industry on its journey towards a sustainable future.

Suntory Global Spirits (Ardmore) – Peatland Water Restoration

Suntory Global Spirits launched the Peatland Water Sanctuary™ initiative, committing to replenish as much peat as is used to create their peated whiskies by 2030, and doubling this target by 2040.

The programme is investing over $4.4 million into the restoration and conservation of a minimum of 2,600 hectares of peatlands by the end of the next decade, which will help protect high quality water sources across Scotland. With 14 hectares already restored near the company’s Ardmore distillery, 70 hectares near its Bowmore and Laphroaig distilleries on Islay, and another 160 hectares of restoration in progress in East Ayrshire, Suntory Global Spirits is working with local partners such as the RSPB, Forestry and Land Scotland and the James Hutton Institute to further Scotland’s sustainability and biodiversity ambitions and net-zero goals.

Beam Suntory Gives Laphroaig Bottle a Greener Glow-Up

Beam Suntory is going greener for its iconic green Laphroaig scotch whisky bottle. The company has refreshed the design with one said to be more sustainable design, which the company said will reduce its CO2 emission by 30%, in turn supporting its Proof Positive sustainability strategy to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its value chain by 2040.

The new design keeps Laphroaig’s signature green bottle design with black and white accents but replaces the plastic bar top with a beech wood alternative. The secondary packaging will also be substituted with a more recycling-friendly carton.

The packaging will also introduce new details that include embossed Laphroaig lettering on the side, as well as renaming "select" to "oak select" as a nod to the role of casks in the whisky's flavour profile. There will be no change to the actual whisky itself.

Pernod Ricard tested single-mould paper-based bottles in the U.K. for their Absolut Vodka brand, made of 57% paper with an integrated barrier of recyclable plastic. This will soon extend to whisky bottles.

Amber Nectar Goes Green As Whisky Has A Low Carbon Makeover

For whisky lovers, the packaging that holds their precious bottle – and the bottle itself, with its carefully designed contours, dimples, decanter-style elegance, in crystal clear or tinted glass, with richly coloured porcelain flagons in velvet bags – is an evocative starting point to the warming dram that awaits.

The story told in the dram’s presentation taps into everything from history and heritage to landscape and nature, wrapped up in aspirational packaging evoking luxury, elegance and style.

Ever since a striding Johnnie Walker appeared on the label, red coat swinging and tipping his top hat in jolly greeting, whisky has been a successful marriage between what’s in the bottle and the emotional tug sparked by how it is presented. But now the face of whisky – or, at least, the boxes, tubes, presentation tins and bottles that it comes in – is going through a very modern makeover.

This week, it emerged that the Islay distillery, Bruichladdich, has broken with tradition and, in an effort to reduce waste, energy usage and excess materials, is cutting back on “unnecessary” outer packaging.

Its Port Charlotte range was already being sold exclusively without its traditional, distinctive, black and gold tin box. It follows last year’s “One Tin Lighter” initiative which offered customers the chance to opt out of secondary packaging: more than half chose the “no tin” option. According to Bruichladdich, revived in 2001 after seven years in mothballs, production of each tin had produced 1.13kg of CO2.

Stripping back on presentation is part of a drive to be more sustainable: behind the scenes, the Victorian distillery is preparing to install innovative hydrogen combustion technology to heat its stills and decarbonise the distillation process.

Others are also rethinking their elaborate packaging: Chivas Brothers’ premium brand, Royal Salute, has replaced its signature porcelain flagon – which often crops up, empty, on online auction sites – with a more sustainable, although perhaps less luxurious, coated glass flagon. What is lost in heritage – the flagon has been a feature of the brand since its launch in 1953 – it makes up for by ticking a giant green box: the move results in a 70% reduction in the carbon footprint of the primary packaging.

It may be a sector which loves to trumpet heritage, history and tradition but, with the industry aiming to make all new packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, it seems change is coming.

Signs of what lies ahead emerged at COP26, when a limited-edition blended Scotch drawn from 26 distilleries across Scotland’s five whisky regions was released. It features a bottle made from 97% recycled glass and with a stopper made from recycled wood and cork.

Some distilleries are exploring the use of thinner glass bottles, while Diageo has collaborated with glass manufacturer Encirc to use waste-based biofuel-powered furnaces to produce a pilot of 173,000 Black & White bottles made using 100% recycled glass.

More recently, The Macallan launched its Harmony Collection, a limited release series of single malts with a sustainability message. The first, Rich Cacao, has a presentation box made of paper derived from from cacao pods discarded during the chocolate-making process.

In Wales, Bangor University’s Biocomposites Centre in collaboration with Pulpex – a research and development collaboration between Diageo and venture management company Pilot Lite – has designed a paper bottle for spirits made from sustainably sourced, FSC-certified wood pulp.

Whilst paper bottles may be hard to swallow for drinkers who like their dram to ooze luxury, in Singapore there are even fewer frills attached. There, some supermarkets now feature spirits vending machines that dispense whisky, gin and vodka straight into customers’ reusable bottles.

But does removing so much of whisky’s luxury components and stripping back to basics take away some of its precious magic?

Jim Murray, a well-known author of books on Whisky, says a careful balance needs to be struck between reducing waste while still retaining some of the rare qualities that make drinking whisky feel like a special experience.

“Whisky is all about taste, the feel of it in your mouth, the smell,” he says. “The outer covering that it comes in adds to that sensual aspect. How a product is packaged can enhance or detract from the sensuality of the whisky. Packaging is important but whisky has a packaging problem. In recent years some of the packaging has got more and more demented. Some bottles are so heavy that, once empty, they could be used as weapons to kill – there is a serious amount of glass going on.”

Nonetheless, he feels a twinge of regret at the demise of Chivas’s porcelain flagons. “There’s a history of whisky going into ceramic containers,” he says. “I am a little sad to see some of it go as it can be quite elegant and rather lovely. But if they are going to cut down on the packaging, I hope this is shown in the price of products coming down, too, but I suspect it won’t.”

For whisky brands, shedding outer layers means exposing the naked bottle to the supermarket shelf, which creates the dilemma of whether to convey their story of heritage and tradition or groundbreaking sustainability.

According to Lynsey Pritchard, client services director at Thirst, the creative agency that worked with Bruichladdich on its new-look Port Charlotte brand, this will require a creative approach.

“Some consumers will be engaged with the sustainable message and automatically make that purchase,” she says. “But some will feel deprived. It might be that the bottle or label has to work harder. Brands might have to think of what they can do to enhance customers’ interaction with the brand. We have seen online videos where the distiller takes you through a virtual tasting, or it might be a Spotify playlist to have with your dram.”

Whilst Scotch whisky has been built on heritage and tradition, a new breed of consumer often seeks brands that align with their modern values. When choosing a brand or making a purchase, it’s going to be something you want to be seen with and share on your social media. It’s quite new to the whisky industry but we see it in other industries such as fashion and beauty; beauty has a big focus on natural, vegan and refills. It can be argued that luxury has now become a purchase that removes the guilt from indulgence – it’s not really about financial wealth or special status, it’s about self-improvement and living guilt free.

Whisky producers are already “thinking outside the box” it seems. Colourful bottles have appeared: Bruichladdie’s The Classic Laddie comes in bright turquoise; Haig Club’s vessel is rich, blue and square.

There’s also been a surge in colourful, eye-catching arty labels such as The Boutique-y Whisky Company which features bold cartoon graphic designs, collaborations with artists – Glenfiddich has worked with some of the world’s most innovative artists for two decades – and tie-ins with influencers and celebrities. Even venues feature: The Dalmore’s The Luminary Series of limited edition malts has been curated in partnership with V&A Dundee, blending whisky and architectural design.

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) says the sector has made significant inroads towards becoming a greener, more sustainable industry. It points out that greenhouse emissions have been cut by more than 50% since 2008, while almost 40% of all energy used by producers is obtained from non-fossil fuel sources, compared to 28% in 2018.

As well as the pledge to have all new packaging recyclable or compostable by 2025, the industry has also pledged to use water responsibly and play an active role in the conservation of Scotland’s peatland.

The SWA’s Sustainability Strategy, meanwhile, commits the sector to reaching net-zero emissions in its operations by 2040.

At present, some consumers do expect premium products like Scotch whisky to have a premium look and feel, sometimes equating this to more elaborate packaging. How will this perspective be challenged while reassuring consumers that using low-carbon – and less – packaging will not reduce the premium nature of Scotch whisky and how it is presented? This industry is committed to addressing the impact of the packaging used to bottle and transport Scotch whisky around the world. Getting to net zero is a clear priority, therefore tackling this agenda is critical.