Words by Smiley Team
Confronting its reliance on fossil fuels, Bruichladdich distillery in Scotland has announced it is aiming to go net zero by 2025. By this, they mean they hope to switch entirely to renewable energy sourced from wind, hydrogen and tidal power.
The Islay-based distillery plans to develop an innovative means to produce green hydrogen using green electricity and water electrolysis.
“We have this view of ‘think big, start small, but start today’. And that’s one of the things you need in the industry: to take a brave and courageous step to represent what change could look like,” Bruichladdich’s chief executive, Douglas Taylor, told the Guardian.
[Read More: Scottish island goes green with hydropower project]
Their endeavour will help progress away from the traditional, highly polluting production process. Many whiskey distilleries still rely heavily on fossil fuels, burning gas and oil to heat the giant vessels they use.
But luckily, there is a growing movement in the whiskey world to adopt more sustainable ways of working. Around the globe, distilleries are reducing waste, switching to green energy, limiting their water consumption and committing to eco-friendly agriculture.
Currently, Bruichladdich uses energy from green tariffs but will switch to local renewable sources that could serve the wider island, not just the distillery.
This means that the island’s inhabitants may benefit from excess energy collected by the distillery to become entirely self-sufficient. If so, Islay would be the second island to do so after the Orkneys, off Scotland’s northern coast, gained this status about a decade ago.
Overall, the country as a whole is making considerable efforts to divest from fossil fuels, with renewables providing 97% of Scotland’s electricity in 2020.
